Following their seventh task of enduring the "Cave of the Beast", the pair attempt the eighth task of getting a permit document from a multi-storey bureaucratic building. After finding it impossible because of the clinically unhelpful people who direct them elsewhere, Asterix beats them at their own game by asking for an imaginary permit. The staff fall victim to their own behaviour, and cause the Prefect to unwittingly hand over what the Gauls came for. The pair continue to complete further challenges. They cross a ravine filled with crocodiles by beating them up, rather than using an invisible tightrope. They answer a riddle by the Old Man of the Mountain, conducted in the form of a washing detergent advertisement. They then endure a night on a plain haunted by ghosts. Asterix gets rid of them by complaining about the noise and convincing the ghosts to shut up.