“Congratulations, Su,” Adam said. “How does your first time leveling up with your new class feel?”
“I-it feels good,” Susan mumbled, looking down at the grass and blushing bright red. “I feel a lot stronger now than when I leveled up before. It’s hard to describe.”
Titania nodded. “This does not surprise me. The strength you gain from a beginner’s class is nothing compared to a hidden class, never mind an excellent class like Fairy Archer. It’s only natural you would feel the difference.”
While Titania treated her words as if they were gospel, Adam and the others who lived in the real world understood what Susan meant. The feeling of strength they had in the game felt a lot different than real life. Each increase in level gave them more energy, more strength, and made them feel more invigorated. Of course, these levels only affected them in the game. In real life, they felt the same as always.
Because they still had a long way to go before reaching the cave—if the cave really did exist—Adam and the others mounted their horses again and began racing across the valley toward Suncrest Mountain.
While they were traveling, Adam checked out the new items they had acquired.
Item Pouch:
Name: Heavy Plate Mail
Item Type: Armor
Grade: 2-Star
Use requirements: Can only be equipped by Warriors level 20 and above.
Description: This heavy plate mail is designed to maximize protection at the cost of mobility. It is great for people who rely on Defense over Movement.
Abilities: Defense+500; Speed-50
Item Name: Ring of Vitality
Item Type: Ring
Grade: 2-Star
Use requirements: Can be used by any class level 10 and above.
Description: This ring was crafted and enchanted by a Dwarf apprentice. It grants a boost to Constitution and restores health!
Abilities: Constitution+50; Restores +5 HP every one second.
Item Name: Monster Core
Item Type: Core
Grade: 2-Star
Use requirements: Can only be used by players with the Blacksmith, Craftsmen, or Enchanter secondary classes.
Description: Monster Cores can be used by Blackmiths, Craftsmen, and Enchanters to enhance armor, clothing, or create skill scrolls. They can also be used in the construction of magical devices.
Abilities: +50% MP; +50% Magic Attack; Can be used in the creation of a defensive skill
While the [validodon horn] and [monster core] were not items he could use right now because they were for players who had a secondary class, the other two pieces of equipment seemed pretty good… though the [Heavy Plate Mail] was not something he could equip, nor would he want to. He looked at the [Ring of Vitality] for a moment. It was a simple ring made of gold and adorned with a carnelian gemstone.
“Lilith!” Adam called as he pulled on the reigns of his horse and made it move so he was trodding alongside the woman in question. Once he was sure he had Lilith’s attention, he held out his hand with the ring resting on his palm. “Here. Put this on. It isn’t much, but it should help increase your stats.”
Lilith took the [Ring of Vitality] from his outstretched hand, gazed at it for a little bit, then looked away.
“Thanks,” she mumbled, slipping the ring onto her finger.
Adam nodded and moved his horse once more so they weren’t so close. He didn’t know if you could collide with each other while riding in this game, but he wouldn’t put it past the creator to make such a thing possible. He’d always said it, but this game was so realistic it was sometimes hard to believe he wasn’t in the real world right now.
Out of the corner of his eyes, Adam caught someone staring at him. It was Fayte. The moment she realized he had noticed her, she smiled at him and looked away, resuming a conversation with Susan. He frowned for a moment. Why had she been looking at him? After thinking about it, he couldn’t figure out the reason and decided to put it out of his mind.
They eventually reached Suncrest Mountain after passing through a valley. The landscape changed from grassy plains and forests to dirt and rocks. It had taken four days to reach this place. They had logged out several times to eat and sleep, much to Titania’s displeasure. There was only a small path up the mountain side, and it was steep and winding, making Adam worry about whether their horses would be able to climb up it.
To be safe, they left their horses tied to a tree at the entrance of the mountain trail and began walking up it on their own. The mountain pass was fairly treacherous. Not only was it steep, but there were several places where the gravel was unstable. Fayte and Susan relied on Adam and Lilith to find the safe paths for them. Even then, there were several missteps.
“Aaaahh!”
Susan screamed when her foot stepped on an unstable rock that came loose. Her body teetered over the edge, more gravel coming loose, and she soon pitched backward. She tried to regain her balance by pinwheeling her arms, but she was already falling by that point.
Because she didn’t want to see what would happen to her when she fell, Susan closed her eyes, which was why she missed Adam grabbing her hand and pulling her into his chest. It wasn’t until her face bumped against his chest that she opened her eyes again. After realizing she wasn’t dead, she looked up at his relieved face.
“You okay?” he asked.
“Ah…” Susan’s voice became caught in her throat. She could say nothing, only nod her head once.
“I’m glad. Here. Hold my hand until we move past this point. I don’t want you falling again.”
Susan did not say anything, which made Adam frown a little, but she did nod as she tentatively grasped his hand. She really was one of the shyest people he had ever met. It made him wonder when she’d get used to his presence, or if maybe she would never get used to him.
Since Adam was helping Susan, he let Lilith take the lead while he took the rear. Lilith was just as talented as him at finding the correct path to continue traveling up. They continued climbing up the mountain, and eventually reached a small cliff face.
And situated just several feet away from the path they had climbed was the entrance to a cave.
The Demon Knight Clansman’s Trial
The cave entrance was not very wide nor very tall. Susan could probably fit through it without any trouble, but Adam would have to stoop down while walking to pass through. It didn’t have any sense of foreboding like the cavern Adam had gone into during his time in the Village of Beginnings. However, he knew better than to just assume nothing dangerous was lurking inside based on that.
“Is this… the cave the Demon Knight Clansman hid himself in?” asked Fayte, sounding uncertain.
“I don’t know.” Adam shook his head. “But it is the first cave we’ve discovered. We should at least check it out. I’ll take the front. Susan and Fayte, I want you two in the middle. Lilith will take the rear. Kureha and Titania? I’d like it if you two could head in right after Fayte and Su.”
“We shall do as you say,” Titania said, then crossed her arms. “Though you should know I’d prefer staying close to you. You are the spear’s master.”
Adam shrugged. “I understand your desires, but this time, I think it would be best if you all stayed a little further back, just in case there are traps. I’m pretty good at disarming traps, but the same can’t be said for the rest of you.”
Lilith was also good at spotting and disarming traps, but Adam couldn’t tell anyone that since he wanted to keep their relationship a secret.
Titania frowned like she wanted to deny his words. When she found herself unable to, she huffed and formed up behind Fayte and Susan alongside Kureha. Fortunately, Adam’s little fox yokai companion didn’t have the same issues Titania did.
With Adam in the lead, they journeyed into the cave. Just as he first suspected, he was forced to bend his knees and stoop to fit through. Not only was the cave small, it also wasn’t very wide, meaning he had to scrunch his shoulders in
. It was a good thing he wasn’t claustrophobic, or Adam was certain he would have been panicking.
The cavern fortunately widened after they walked for several yards. What he saw upon exiting from the small tunnel was a much larger interior chamber that looked unnatural, like someone had built it instead of being formed naturally through erosion over the course of several centuries. Shaped like a cylinder, the chamber walls were relatively smooth and the floor was also flat. A ceiling sat high over their heads. At the far side of this chamber was a door, and in the center of this chamber was a monolith.
“What is that?” asked Susan, staring curiously at the monolith.
Titania fluttered over to it with a flap of her wings, Adam and the others following close behind her. Glowing symbols appeared when they neared it. Neither Adam nor anyone else from the real world could understand what those glyphs said. It looked like they were written in a form of runic alphabet, but he didn’t recognize which language, so they must have been a made up language for the game. It was a good thing they had Titania with them.
“I journeyed here after our clan was betrayed by Beleques. Injured and dying, I will turn this cave into my final resting place. Here, I will leave my most treasured possessions deep within this mountain. Should any brave soul find this place, you may take everything that lies beyond the door, but only if you have the skills to do so. Be warned. My trial is one that only someone with the heart of an assassin can survive.”
Titania read the glyphs out loud, and everyone else listened with uncertain expressions. Fayte glanced at Adam, but then she looked at Lilith, who stood silently behind the rest of them. It was impossible to tell what Lilith was thinking.
“There’s no name here,” Titania said with a sigh. “I’m not sure who this place belonged to, but it looks like we must pass the trial to get whatever is on the other side of that door. Since this is a trial left by a member of the Demon Knight Clan, and it specifically states only someone who has the ‘heart of an assassin’ can survive, I believe only someone with the Assassin class may take the trial.”
Everyone turned to look at Lilith, who remained collected and cold even under the intense scrutiny of four different people and one fox. She looked at them all. Her eyes stopped on Adam, a question in her gaze. He nodded once.
“I’ll go,” she said at last.
“I do not know what sort of trial you will face, but I should warn you there is a good chance you will die,” Titania stated. “The Demon Knight Clan was a cold and deadly clan of demons from the Forgotten Continent who specialized in assassination. While they were known for not hating the Races of Light, their infamy for cold-blooded murder is something all races of this world are well-aware of even to this day. Be careful.”
Lilith only nodded at the fairy before she walked over to the door. Nothing happened when she stepped in front of it, but then she placed her hand on the door, causing several glyphs to light up. A loud rumble shook the cave. The door opened with a ponderous and glacial slowness. When Lilith stepped through the door, it closed behind her, trapping her on the other side.
“Do you think Lilith will be okay?” asked Susan, casting a worried glance at the door.
Fayte rubbed the girl’s head. “I’m sure Lilith will be fine. Don’t forget about how skilled she is. We would have never leveled up as fast as we did without her.”
“Yes. You’re right.” Susan placed a hand against her chest and took a deep breath, as though trying to calm herself down. She smiled, but everyone could tell from the way her lips trembled that she was still worried. “I’m certain you’re right.”
Adam did not express any concern for Lilith. He knew her talent better than anyone else, and he was certain she would succeed no matter the trials she faced. Of course, even if she didn’t, she wouldn’t die permanently. She’d just lose a level and be sent back to the cathedral in Solum.
He turned to Titania. “I’ve heard you mention the Races of Light before. Can you explain them in more detail?”
“The races of light are what we call the races who were created by the four goddesses. Humans, fairies, beastmen, and dwarves are members of the races of light. The Demon Knight Clan, the Spider Clan, the Black Dragons, the War Beasts… all of them are demons and not members of the races of light. They came from the Forgotten Continent, which continues to churn out powerful monsters that even the strongest members of the Races of Light have trouble defeating.”
Fayte, Susan, and Kureha wandered over to them as Titania continued talking. While it was clear that Kureha wasn’t paying any attention, the two humans girls seemed interested in what Titania was saying.
“So there are four Races of Light. How many demon races are there?” asked Fayte.
“Twelve,” Titania answered immediately. “Aside from the four I just mentioned, there are also the Sky Demons, the Hell Clan, the Frost Giants, the Serpent Clan, the Dullahans, the Manticores, the Clan of Despair, and the Prime Clan, which is said to be the strongest of the twelve demon clans.”
“It sounds like there are a lot of demons,” Adam muttered. “I’m surprised the races of light haven’t been overwhelmed.”
“Aside from the Spider Clan, demons have very low birth rates,” Titania explained. “That’s why there aren’t as many demons as there are humans. However, demons are also much stronger than humans. A level 40 demon will be four to five times stronger than a level 40 human, regardless of what class they have.”
Hearing Titania speak of the demons who hailed form the Forgotten Continent, Adam remembered his time inside the Forest of Gloom, where the Spider Clan had taken up residence, and could not help but grimace. If he was at least level 20, he’d go back there and try to shove his spear up that blasted spider woman’s ass. He hated how he’d been forced to flee from that wretched [Spider Queen].
Adam had always been a sore loser.
Lilith knew the moment the door shut behind her that she would not be able to leave unless she completed this trial or died in the attempt. The door was sealed shut with some kind of magic. There was also no doorknob. It would not budge no matter how many times she pushed on it and even using attacks did not work.
Since she could not go back, she could only move forward.
Unlike the previous tunnel, the area she walked through now was a proper hallway. She judged it to be about five feet wide and maybe seven tall. The walls, floor, and ceiling were smooth. That Demon Knight Clansman had probably spent the last bit of his strength creating this trial before quietly dying. She wondered if he had been content when he died or if he’d been filled with bitter regret.
There was a door at the other end of this hallway. It was large, made from stone, and did not have a knob. There weren’t any identifying marks either. Lilith could not see any way to open it.
She walked up to the door, eyes on her surroundings, and watched as several glowing glyphs appeared, not on the door, but on the floor. Lilith’s sense of danger flared up. She only had a moment to act.
Leaping backward, she avoided certain death when the floor disappeared. She walked over and looked down. At the bottom of the trap door was a pit full of spikes. This sort of trap was something that had been used long before the creation of modern security in the real world. She had never dealt with traps like this before, but she had made a few to catch animals when she was hunting for food in the wilderness during some of the missions that took her to very remote locations.
After the floor vanished, glyphs appeared on the door seconds before it slid open. The trap door was only about two feet across. Lilith easily leapt over the gap, landed with a crouch, then jumped forward once more when the floor beneath her wobbled. She looked back and narrowed her eyes upon seeing the floor she’d been standing on had vanished into darkness.
Beyond the door was a large interior space that was several hundred times bigger than the room where Adam, Fayte, Susan, Titania, and Kureha were waiting for her. Even she could not judge how high the ceiling was or how big
the space was. She estimated it to be the size of at least two football fields, so at least two hundred yards long and maybe three hundred and twenty feet wide, but that was only a guess.
Judging the size of this place was hard because of the gigantic object in the very center of this cavernous space.
What stood in the center of this space was a structure, but it did not have the medieval European aesthetic of everything else she’d seen from this game. This place looked like a Chinese palace. It was an elaborate structure of considerable size, possessing four compounds that ranged from the size of a three-story house to single-story buildings. It was made from black stone and possessed a dark, foreboding aura.
Imposing was a good word to describe this place.
Lilith kept a careful eye on her surroundings as she walked up the stone steps leading to the first building. She could see the other buildings as she crested the stairs. Many of them were walled off and surrounded by gardens, but these were not the zen gardens so often found in Chinese architecture. Filled with dead plants and black sand, these gardens looked like they had been cultivated by Yanluo himself. Even the motes surrounding some of the buildings were filled with murky, black water.
The first building did not contain anything inside. It was just a large, empty space. However, the moment she walked through the doors, they slid shut behind her.
With reflexes honed from years of brutal life and death battles, Lilith flipped through the air, landed on the ground, and performed several back handsprings. As she did, the floor beneath her feet disappeared. Each tile vanished into thin air, revealing a dark pit that seemed to go on forever.
As she landed in the center of the room, the floor beneath her sank but didn’t vanished. It was like she had stepped on a button. A loud sound like cranking chains echoed around her. She looked up just in time to see a spiked section of the ceiling swiftly descend. She rolled across the floor. The spiked ceiling slammed into the floor, punctured the tiles, and was reeled back up. Numerous holes were left in the floor.
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