MegaTale (Pacifist) Part 4- Test of Independence

"There is another puzzle in this room." Adrian states. "I wonder if you can complete it..." Adrian and Rock then continues down the path. Suddenly, a frog-like robot hops in front of Rock! It appears to be a sort of red color with one big eye. "What is tha-" Rock started to say, but Rhythm interrupted. "That is a Ribbitron." Rhythm stated. "If you want to get past it, try complimenting it." Rock nods in understanding. "Hey, uh..." Rock begins to think on what to say. "That's, uh, a beautiful shade of red you got there!" Rock was trying to pretend he wasn't nervous. Suddenly, the Ribbitron blushed! ...Or, at least, it did something similar to blushing. "Great job!" Rhythm says proudly. "Although, anything nice and friendly would've worked. I don't think it really understood you. Another way to spare it would be to threaten it somehow, but I just thought you would prefer complimenting instead. Now, all you have to do is-" Suddenly, Adrian came to the scene. "Step away from the child, Ribbitron." Adrian said in a menacing voice. Ribbitron then walked away silently. "...Or that..." Rhythm says. Adrian and Rock continues down the path, with Rock shrugging off the fact that Adrian pretty much threatened the Ribbitron back there.

Eventually, the two stopped in front of a set of spikes. "Well, this is the puzzle, but..." Adrian started to say. Adrian thought on it for a while, then looks back at Rock, reaching his hand out. "Here, take my hand for a moment." Adrian says. Rock agrees to do so, letting Adrian take him by the hand. The spikes seem to disappear the moment they step on specific ones, which seems to make some sort of path. Eventually, the two reached the end. "Hm..." Adrian began to think. "Puzzles seem to start being a bit too dangerous for now..." It was then the two continued moving forwards.

Adrian and Rock enters a big hallway. Adrian stops to turn to Rock. "You have done excellently by far, young one." Adrian states. "However... I have a difficult task to ask of you..." Rock wasn't sure what this task is. "...I want you to travel to the end by yourself." Adrian states. "Forgive me for this." Adrian then quickly walks off down the path. Rock follows behind as well. He was confused on what was going on, but he walked on anyways. Eventually, Rock reaches the end of the path, and Adrian pops of from behind a pillar. "Greetings, and well done, young one." Adrian says. "Do not worry, I never really left. I was just behind this pillar the whole time." Rock was relieved by this. "I am sorry, but there was an important reason for this test..." Adrian continued. "...To test your independence." Rock was once again a bit confused by this. "What are you talking about?" Rock states. "Ah. You see, I have to go do something for a while." Adrian states. "And I wanted you to stay here while I'm gone. It's dangerous out there, so please, remain here young one." Adrian then thought for a bit. "Ah, I know." Adrian continued. "Here-" Adrian then hands Rock some sort of earpiece. "This is a Communicator." Adrian continues. "Every robot is built with one. Those are one of my spares which I altered to be human-friendly, in case a human were to fall down here." Rock studies the buttons of the Communicator closely before gently placing it in his left ear. "Please use it to contact me if you need anything." Adrian continues. Rock nods in agreement. "Please be good, alright?" Adrian asks before leaving.

The moment Adrian was gone, Rock decides to check out the Communicator. Rock presses the power button on the COMMUNICATOR. Suddenly, in front of his left eye he sees a small, holographic screen pop out in front of him. There appears to be only two options, however: Dialing and Contacts. Rock decides to look through the Contacts. However, there only seems to be one contact: Adrian. There was also an option to add a new contact, but since Rock didn't know any other numbers, he decides to leave it alone for now. With full knowledge of how the communicator works, Rock turns the Communicator off. "Hey." Rhythm starts to say. Rock turns to Rhythm. "You want to know how to return home, yes?" Rhythm continues. Rock nods. "Then as much as I hate to say it..." Rhythm continues.

"...We're going to have to ignore Adrian's orders and keep moving."