OLD-WORLD EXTRA

Emir cautiously navigated through the dimly lit maze, his senses heightened and alert for any signs of danger.

He kept a close eye on his surroundings, scanning for potential traps or obstacles that might hinder his progress.

And soon, after crossing several traps he arrived at a closed door, obstructing his path to the next stage of the maze.

A small piece of parchment dangled from the ceiling, its surface covered in intricate symbols that appeared to hold some kind of significance.

Grabbing it, he skimmed through the symbols that seemed to be a weird mixture of English combined with seemingly random lettering.

He couldn't make any sense of it at first, but as he studied it closer, he realized that it was a riddle, the words themselves were simple to understand, as the ones with the different lettering simply needed to be discarded and the rest would form the riddle.

The riddle read:

"I crave eternal sustenance, ceaseless in demand, 
Causing crimson fate, as my touch expands. 
Mysterious and ravenous, my nature widespread, 
Can you unravel the enigma of what I am instead?"

The parchment paper dangled above him, its script seemingly cryptic and indecipherable.

Emir furrowed his brows and read the riddle once more, pondering its hidden meaning.

He read and reread the riddle.

His mind raced through countless possibilities, searching for something that fit the clues.

It wasn't until a moment of clarity struck him that the solution became clear.

"The answer is fire," Emir stated confidently, realizing that fire was always hungry, consuming anything it could, and could possibly be depicted as a red flame, a crimson fate.

One of the bulbs on the door had just turned green, indicating that he had correctly solved one of the riddles.

He scanned the remaining bulbs, realizing that two more were still unlit, meaning that he still had two more riddles to solve.

With a sense of urgency, he searched the area for any possible clues that could lead him to the next riddle.

And then, his eyes caught a glimpse of something unusual—a slight protrusion on one of the walls.

Intrigued, Emir moved closer to investigate and found a hidden compartment.

His heart racing with anticipation, he reached inside and retrieved another parchment paper.

Unlike the previous one, this one was written in plain English.

The riddle was as follows:

"I am the beginning of everything, The end of everywhere, The beginning of the end, And the end of every place. What am I?"

Whilst Emir read the riddle, he carefully scrutinized each letter and then each word, determined to unravel its meaning.

It didn't take long for a spark of realization to flicker in his mind, the answer was simple yet unique, nothing that he expected.

It was not a word, but a letter, the letter "E" to be exact.

It was the first letter of the word "everything," the last letter of "everywhere," the beginning of "end," and the end of "place."

With a sigh of relief, Emir said, "E."

He glanced at the door and noticed that another bulb had illuminated green, signifying that he had correctly answered another riddle. Letting out another sigh of relief, he continued.

Emir searched the surrounding area for the final parchment but to no avail.

As the darkness made it difficult to see, he carefully combed through the rubble-filled ground with his hands, feeling for any clues that could lead him to the missing riddle.

And after some time, his fingers brushed against something, and he pulled out the final parchment.

It was written in English, but it had no riddle in it, just a story, something completely unrelated to the previous riddles.

Emir studied it for a while, reading it repeatedly until he realized it contained a complex code.

The code on the parchment paper was made up of seemingly random letters and words, but upon closer inspection, he realized that there was a pattern to it.

It consisted of a series of letters that were repeated throughout the text but in a different order each time.

There were also words that were capitalized or highlighted in bold, indicating that they were important.

Emir began to decode the message by first identifying the repeated letters and organizing them in alphabetical order.

This revealed a sequence of letters that spelled out a word when read from left to right.

Next, he looked at the capitalized and bolded words, which appeared to be clues to the riddle.

They were arranged in a particular order and contained certain letters that matched up with the repeated letters in the code.

Additionally, there were several numbers scattered throughout the text, some of which were circled or surrounded by strange symbols.

As he studied the code further, he began to recognize more patterns in the text.

For example, there were several instances where a word would be followed by a series of numbers and symbols that appeared to correspond to a specific letter in the alphabet.

Using these patterns as a guide, he began to further decode the text, carefully piecing together each letter until he had formed the riddle hidden within the code.

It was a difficult and time-consuming process, but eventually, Emir managed to decipher the entire code and reveal the hidden riddle.

"Once upon a time, there was a creature that defied all the laws of nature. It was not alive in the traditional sense, yet it grew in size and power with each passing day. It did not possess lungs to breathe, but it still required air to survive. And although it lacked a mouth to consume food, it thirsted for water to quench its endless thirst. What is this mysterious entity, you ask? The answer lies hidden in the words of this tale, waiting to be uncovered by the clever and astute."

The code serves as a clue for the riddle, which is:

"I am not alive, but I grow; I don't have lungs, but I need air; I don't have a mouth, but I need water to live. What am I?"

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