by A P Gore
The goldfish moved to the edge of the transparent fish tank, staring into his eyes. It was cute. It triggered a dear memory of his daughter.
Kiara was ten when she saw a goldfish for the first time. Jon refused at first, but she begged him to buy one.
Water collected around his eyelids as he remembered the way his little girl had stared at the fish for hours. It amused him at first, yet it broke his heart when his girl cried for hours after the fish died in couple of days because they both forgot to feed the fish.
Jon sighed, pushing away the memories of the past. He was here now, and Kiara was far away in real life. He could only hope she was doing fine with the money he gave her and had joined the academy she’d planned to.
Squatting down, he stared at the goldfish and cast a perception.
The fish’s small mouth opened and closed, while its big black eyes stared at him. “Adventurer, welcome to the Ruins of Shenron Labyrinth 6.”
Jon nearly fell on his butt. What? A talking fish?
“Are you...” Jon pointed at the fish.
“Yes. I can talk, adventurer. Actually, I can change into someone else from your memories.” The fish tank changed into a small girl with blond hair, a sharp nose, and two big blue eyes. She wore a beautiful white princess dress with red flower embroidery on its chest.
It was Kiara as she’d been on her tenth birthday, in a dress he had gifted her.
“Do you like this avatar, adventurer?”
This time, Jon let his tears loose, not wanting to stop them.
“Kiara...” He tried to reach her with his arms wide open, but his hands moved through empty air. The girl vanished and reappeared farther away from him.
“Why...” It was a cruel joke on his father’s heart. Who was doing this to him, showing him vivid memories of his daughter whom he missed so much.
“Oh, you don’t like this, do you? Let me try this.” The girl changed into an automatic plow from his farm in real life.
Wiping his tears away, Jon smiled. “The second one is better.” At least he could see his daughter again. He missed her childhood. Those were the days he loved most. Her mother was alive at that time, and he’d had his happy, complete family.
“Adventurer, welcome to the Ruins of Shenron.” The plow machine changed back into his girl and smiled at him.
“Who are you?” It was strange, seeing his daughter talk to him like that. Strange, and yet desired. But she wasn’t his girl. His girl was doing fine in the real world. She was happy there, and he should be happy for her. No, he shouldn’t chase a mirage. That might be dangerous for him.
“Who are you? And how did you know my girl?” Jon’s face hardened.
“I’m the spirit guardian of the great city of Shenron. Unfortunately, it got destroyed in the War of Faiths, so I was tasked by Master Shenron to guard this part of the Labyrinth.”
“A Labyrinth?”
The girl nodded. Though she didn’t pout like his daughter had in her childhood, it was still better for a father’s heart to look at his child. “Yes, a three-stage Labyrinth. Do you want to initiate your first trial?”
Chapter 11
The muscles on Jon’s forehead twitched. A labyrinth? Really? Why would he go in there?
“No.” Jon declined in a single breath. Why was everyone trying to push him toward fighting and these stupid things? All he wanted was to farm in peace, care for the plants, grow higher quality crop, and enjoy his life in solitude. If not for the stupid contract with Baltazar, he would have run far away from this new expansion shit. With his current abilities, he could spend the next six hundred years in peace, but one calamity after another got in his way. First the beast tide came, then the darkness vine shit, and now this labyrinth. If no one had entered this shit before, why would he?
The girl’s face hardened. “Why are you declining, adventurer? The rewards at the end will surpass your expectations. Don’t look down on Master Shenron.”
“I don’t care. Thanks for showing me my girl’s face again, but now show me the way out of here.” He could use the way he came in, but that came with the chance of encountering those lions or that mountain bear again. It would be better to walk through a door to safety. “Also, can you show me a door that takes me out of this forest?” That would be the icing on the cake.
The girl shook her head. “You can’t go back until you pass the trial. The only way out is from the reward room.”
“Okay, then bye-bye.” Waving goodbye to the girl, Jon activated Earth Mend and walked straight into the wall he thought he came out from.
He smacked into the wall and a stab of pain shot from his forehead.
“Adventurer, the chamber is marked with an anti-spell formation, so you can come in but can’t go out.”
“Damn!” Rubbing his forehead, Jon turned back. “Did you say anti-spell formation? A formation?”
“Yes. It’s one of the defensive formations my master developed. Are you a Formationist?”
Jon swallowed. “Your master, Shenron was a Formation Master?”
The girl giggled. “Formation Master, no. He was way ahead of that tier.”
Jon gasped, his brows arching. “There’s a level above Formation Master?”
“Of course. Multiple formation guilds used my master’s formations as the foundation for their teachings.” The girl spoke with an undertone of pride.
Jon’s mind was on fire. This was the first time he had heard that Formation Master was not the peak of the mountain. Anyway, why would he care? He was fine with the level he had.
But there might be better formations that would assist him with farming and take the crop production to the next level.
“So, this trial. Can I die?”
“What kind of question is that, adventurer? The trials are not something a child can walk through. There are, of course, dangers. But since you can hide your level from me, the Supreme Spirit of the city of Shenron, I think you can pass it easily.”
Jon smiled sheepishly. “Can a level 8 player solve it?”
The girl stared at him with disdain. “This trial was built by Master Shenron. Level 8, that’s like an ant trying to march against an elephant.”
Jon shrugged. “So, I’ll die if I walk in. I’m fine with that. Let’s do this.”
“Are you...” The girl pointed at him.
Jon nodded. “Yes, a level 8 player. So, show me the way to die faster. It’s a headache to spend 5 hours in the respawn room, but I’m also craving that coffee.” The phantom aroma of coffee tickled his nostrils. Sometimes, dying could be worth it.
“But how can—”
“Shall we?” Jon’s brows slanted.
The girl nodded and waved her hand. The middle platform divided in half, and the halves moved away from each other, revealing a staircase down into the earth.
“Follow me, adventurer.” The girl started down, and Jon followed her.
“Can you tell me about the trial?”
“Yes, the trial consists of three phases. Each phase increases the difficulty, but the reward also increases. If you pass phase 1, you can get a Unique item of your choice from the vault. If you pass the phase 2, you can get an Epic item, and for phase 3 you can get the first Mystical item from the Vault of Shenron.”
“So, there are multiple trials?”
The girl nodded. “I can tell you that, because your death is imminent in the first trial. A level 8 person can’t even imagine passing the trial.”
“Whatever. Just tell me in detail. I may come back.”
The girl paused, and Jon nearly bumped into her. “Are you immortal?”
“Immortal...” It took Jon a moment to recall that the NPCs called players immortals. “Ah, yes. I’m an immortal who can resurrect.”
The girl’s face softened. “That’s why you aren’t afraid of dying. Good. When I was serving my master, he once told me that the immortals would come from another realm, and everything would change. But then for the last thousand years, no o
ne came to challenge the trials, and I thought everyone outside died.” She had a hint of disappointment in her voice. “But as an immortal, you can keep coming back and keep me company.”
Jon smiled sheepishly. He wasn’t afraid of dying, but the pain that came with it could be intense. At least, with high level Pain Attunement, he could bear it now. Of course, he would choose the easiest way to die, if he could.
The staircase brought them to another room with three doors. Each door had a name written on it, but only one name revealed itself as they stepped inside the room. The others remained blurry.
The girl pointed to the bronze door, which read “Trial of Blood.” “I’ll wait for you at the end. Or until we meet next time, adventurer.”
“Thanks.” Jon stared at his little girl’s face. It might be a long time until he could see her again. Unless someone forced him, he wouldn’t be revisiting the trial to die again.
With a heavy heart, he stepped inside the first room.
Chapter 12
Jon stood on a small round platform at the center of the room. Dim light covered the room, making it hard to see anything. A shrieking sound filled the room, warning of danger in the vicinity.
Squinting, Jon tried to assess the situation, but the light was too low to see anything. Somehow, his night vision ability had vanished after entering this room, so he couldn’t see anything clearly. Even the smell of the place was trifling, so he couldn’t make anything of it. As he remained alive after twenty seconds of entering the trial room, this seemed to be a safe area.
Jon cast a simple spell. Conjure Light. A white sphere of light emerged on top of his palm, illuminating the room like a high wattage bulb.
What he saw inside, made him gasp for breath.
The room was circular. He stood on a platform in the center, and sharp metal disks ran around him in four layers. The shrieking sound came from the disks. They reminded Jon of the metal cutters used in wood workshops.
And these damn things had not a single gap in between them.
Sitting, Jon took a deep breath and tried to see through the disks.
There were hundreds of disks running over the circular pattern. Two disks on the same layer were separated by a tiny space, enough to rest one foot, but they moved so fast that even Grimish with his supersonic speed would be torn apart by their speed. Jon was realms apart from Grimish, so he couldn’t even think of running through them. Unless he could fly, he wouldn’t be able to pass this trial.
He may have come expecting to die, but getting shredded into pieces wasn’t how he’d like to do it.
There was a door at his right and another at his left. So, even if he passed through, he didn’t know which one would be the correct door.
Just to test the might of the blade disks, he pulled an earth elemental’s strengthening crystal out of his bag and tossed it on a disk. The earth crystal was a tough thing, so he planned to test the prowess of the disks.
The crystal crashed on one of the metal disks and instantly turned to dust. Heck, even the dust didn’t stick around. It vanished into oblivion, and it took less than a second for the whole process to happen.
Jon’s heart constricted at the sight. Would he like to have his legs turned to dust and then his brain?
No way. He would rather slit his throat with his shovel than die on the disks.
A thought appeared in his mind. Why not try that?
Pulling the remaining set of blank flags from his pocket, he started drawing the formation Lock diagram on it. With practice, his proficiency in drawing the rabbit had increased a lot. Ten minutes later, he completed his formation flags with 75% effect, much better than the reusable blank flags he had drawn.
Now he had to throw those flags at the granite platform next to the doors.
But how would he do that?
Practice.
Pulling ten strengthening crystals out, Jon started his throwing practice. The first one dropped on a metal disk and turned into dust. The second one bounced from the granite platform and fell into the deathly rows of metal disks, getting crushed into dust.
The third one received the same treatment. It was the tenth crystal that did the trick. It rolled a couple times and stayed on one corner.
Jon wiped sweat from the back of neck. Though he had finally succeeded, he wouldn’t dare throw the flag with the next crystal. This could be a fluke. So, he continued throwing the crystals. After thirty-six more crystals, he’d formed a small layer of uneven crystals on the granite platform.
Now it was perfect, because that uneven layer provided him a sticking effect.
Pulling a small rope from his bag, he tied a formation flag to a crystal.
Jon’s legs trembled a little, and his breath stuck inside his chest as he threw the flag-tied crystal toward the layer of crystals on the granite platform.
The crystal hit a large crystal and bounced in the air.
Jon’s legs threatened to buckle. If he lost this flag, he would have to die by suicide.
Thank God, the crystal didn’t bounce high. Instead, it fell and settled between the layers of the other crystals, proving that forming a layer was a good strategy.
System: Congratulations, your hard work has paid off. +1 to Throwing. Really man? You are using those precious crystals for throwing practice? What a waste of a man you are!
Throwing his middle finger in the air, Jon smirked at the game developers. One would definitely die by his curse today.
Throwing (Passive Skill): Provides 5% chance to hit the correct target.
Jon turned and started over again. After twenty-eight more crystals and another +1 to Throwing, he set his second flag on the layer of crystals by the second door.
Placing the other two flags on the edge of the circle he stood on, he activated the Lock formation.
With a screeching sound everything inside the area of the Lock formation stopped, but the remaining disks kept moving. As they neared the area of the formation, their progress halted. Green threads of energy shot everywhere as the disks tried to force their way, while the disks behind them attacked the ones in the front.
The screeching sound flew everywhere, and the pressure built on the foremost disk as the seconds passed.
The formation area received a brutal attack from all four layers, and it quickly started dissipating.
Every passing moment, the formation area lost a zeal of silver.
Crap! Soon the disks would break the formation, and Jon would have no option but to die.
Chapter 13
The girl in the white dress watched the action inside the Trial of Blood. It had been a long time since someone visited the trials, so she was watching every action of the level 8 kid. When he started throwing semi-precious crystals, she was a little surprised. When the crystals formed a layer and then he threw a formation flag, it piqued her curiosity.
The kid was intelligent.
There were only two ways to overcome this first trial. Even flying wouldn’t have worked. If the trial-taker tried to fly over the traps, a thousand arrows would have shot them down.
No, there were only two ways.
First, a brute force attack. When the Strength of a person reached 100+, he received an innate skill of Strength. After reaching 200, the skill would allow the person to destroy these traps with ease, but the kid didn’t have even a sliver of that Strength.
The second one was to use Intelligence and find the trap on the stone platform which would stop the disks, but that required the player to have the Shadow Trap Search skill, and that too at a very high level. Again, impossible for the kid.
But the kid in the Trial of Blood used an ingenious solution. Formation Lock. Even her master wouldn’t have thought someone would use such a trick here.
When the disks pressured his formation, the kid zipped toward one door and passed through it.
Her head shook in disappointment as he chose the wrong path to advance. The path of destruction. If he had chosen the other path, he wou
ld have passed the trial, but he didn’t have the Shadow Illumination skill which would have allowed him to glimpse the danger behind the door.
Too bad. An intelligent lackey would die under the weighing trap today.
“Adventurer, if you pass that trap, I, the Supreme Spirit will imbue a formation in you. But too bad, you’ll die today.”
SWEAT RUSHED FROM HIS forehead like a river running downstream. If the first room was cutting death, the second room was piercing death. A brightly lit ten-by-ten room sprawled in front of him.
Why did he get into this trial? Death by striped lion or that crazy mountain bear would have been an easy affair.
Swoosh... whoosh. Thousands of arrows continuously flew from one side to the other with just a single second gap between the volleys. That one second gap wasn’t enough for him to cross the room. And if he dared to walk forward, at least twenty or thirty arrows would pierce his body from all directions.
Jon sighed. “Damn. I don’t want to die like this. Maybe I can slice my throat with the shovel.” But he didn’t want to do that either. There should be a mechanism to pass through this room too, and there was only one door at the end of the room and a small raised platform next to it.
Wait. When he walked inside this room, he saw a stone statue standing on the granite platform next to the opposite door. It walked away when he stood on the platform next to the incoming door. And if he remembered correctly, his weight shifted the platform a little.
Wondering what it was, Jon stepped back from the platform into the door frame that got him here.
The stone statue near the opposite door moved and stepped on the round platform next to the opposite door, and the arrows stopped for a moment before resuming. However, the gap between two volleys increased to five seconds.
Setting a timer, Jon planned to jump across the stone platform and make his way to the other end in the five second gap. Easy.
Squatting, he got into position to jump. All of his attention was focused on the arrows, and his mind calculated the time for the next slow.