How? That was the only thing running through his head. Of course, he knew the how. He had spent so many years here, that he had memorized every single trap that was in between his room and the paths separating the last and second sections apart. This wasn’t because he tried, this happened subconsciously as he would use the halls as an art exhibit or a park. Going around and around, when he came to the conclusion he would never get out, there was still a bit of hope buried in him.
As time went by, the world would advance and there would no longer be any secrets. At least no surface level secrets, it wasn’t like it was terribly profound. The notes said that while the entrance was hidden with spatial magic, the entrance appeared for a period of time and there were obvious signs when it appeared. It was also mentioned this wasn’t the only place of its kind. Sooner or later this place would become publicly known. While it was meant to test individuals from the notes, this place was meant to be passed.
All because of him. Every single laboratory was exactly that. It was a place he made to hole himself off from the rest of the world while he experimented. They were designed with the purpose of not allowing him to be disturbed. Therefore, there was never any intention for them being completed. The exploration of those places would obviously be worse than here. This place was different. His last experiment was held here, but it was something that would take time. Thus, once the experiment was complete, the entrance would start to appear to the outside world.
Like a new toy meant to be shown off to the world. There were three paths that lead to his room. Each one of them was designed with unconventional traps that even if a person did bypass the rest of the traps, they would probably never find his room. Not unless they willingly jumped into one of the three traps that lead to the three paths. They weren’t exactly hidden. Just thinking about it pissed him off even more, the bastard was a sick bastard.
But it didn’t matter. After exploring side branches, he had finally completely finished putting the rune back together. Ignoring the lost little lamb that shouldn’t have survived but miraculously did. He moved down the hall before stopping a distance away from the entrance to the hall. Everything came down to this. If the rune allowed him, it would let someone find his room. If the rune wasn’t the right one, he would once again be forced to passively wait for that bastard to remember he existed and bring the so-called fated one here.
No matter how he thought about it, he couldn’t come to another conclusion as to why the entire laboratory was designed in a way that from the notes showed the only purpose of this place was to get to the last room. Yet the last trap was counterintuitive to this very thought. This place was designed for his so-called fated one to make it to the last room, and only them.
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Jessica had no idea what she had just witnessed. From beginning to end, she could do nothing but withdraw in. If it wasn’t for that gaze she felt, it was likely she would have ignored the strange signature of mana. It was extremely weak, if not for its unnatural movement she would have believed that she was losing her mind and hallucinating. While mana naturally existed in the world without entering a meditative state, it was nearly impossible to feel it. At least, she didn’t have or heard about that level of talent.
There was one exception and that was refined mana that was completely different. Every person was different, so they had their own type of feeling that was a combination of their inner thoughts to the way they utilized the mana. This also meant that every single person had their own unique mana signature. But the mana she just felt was both similar and dissimilar.
The most confusing aspect was that the mana was natural, it had no unique signature. It was akin to the feeling mana had when she meditated. The problem was it was being manipulated. Natural mana without being refined was something maybe only a once in a hundred generation prodigy might be able to do, however even then it didn’t serve much of a purpose. Natural mana was naturally resistant, it was why she could only refine the duller balls of light and the brighter ones would completely ignore her.
Another problematic issue had appeared. She wanted to ignore it. As her premonitions evolved, she had a lingering impression of the three halls. The one the mana went down was the most memorable. As she had experienced something similar before. Since the work she did wasn’t one she would find customers very often, she would time and time again be forced to work as an adventurer. Even before mercenaries, adventurers were the most common job in this world.
Because of the behemoth known as the Adventurer’s Guild. There were a number of perks that nobody could deny the allure of becoming an adventurer, just take Mercenary Association. The current one was not the first and unlikely to be the last. Only mercenaries were more solitary and the ones worth hiring were hired personally, they wouldn’t give up these rights by working under an association. Those that did random work often were adventurers, unless they found a mercenary gig. That was until they could become a mercenary full time.
She had heard about a famous Grade B adventurer, he had showed up at the Adventurer’s Guild she was near. She didn’t approach him and showed up a far distance away on top of a building that she believed was a safe distance, he wouldn’t notice her gaze. Sure enough, she was right. Because she recognized the person in charge at the branch, she was able to find the Grade B adventurer. Since she was safe, she decided to attempt to use her dragon blood to probe.
Everything turned black. Her sight was still there, but she felt as if someone had covered her eyes as she was overwhelmed with a sense of fear until it colored her entire vision. All he did was turn in her direction, and she felt something rising in her throat as she coughed up a mouthful of blood. By the time she stabilized herself again, she saw the branch manager returning with a smile as the adventurer was gone.
With nothing to go off of, she concluded the blood was backlash for spying on the Grade B. She could only thank her lucky stars she was smart enough to only spy on a person with a resoundingly good reputation. It appeared, when she exposed herself, he didn’t find any hostile intent and didn’t retaliate for her rude behavior. By the speed she recovered, she reckoned the backlash was only his initial reaction to finding someone spying on him. She would get goosebumps just thinking about how bad it would have been if he consciously retaliated for her foolish actions. Then there was her two-year grounding she received when she returned home, she still didn’t know how the old man found out…
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
Though, she wouldn’t say no to a grounding if the old man would come save her. The thing that passed her by had only gazed at her from afar, and she had subconsciously felt herself being pressured. Her vision didn’t go dark, but she found herself subconsciously looking at the ground. When she was finally able to raise her head, she felt the mana move towards the wall. It was then she nearly screamed as she felt a bout of intense mana for a split second. It went as fast as it came.
For that very instance, she still couldn’t put into words the level of fear she had felt. Mana by nature wasn’t harmful and had an endless number of beneficial effects on the body. The fact that it could increase lifespan by simply absorbing it meant that since everyone could absorb mana they often did. Very few people would give up the opportunity. She didn’t agree with it, but there were a good number of people that gave up before they even tried because only a very small number could advance past the Grade E, C, and A bottlenecks.
Again she let her mind wonder, but it was quickly drawn back to the path in front of her. She couldn’t find anything else to think about, so she finally closed her eyes as she bit down on her lip subconsciously. She didn’t need to, but she wanted to be completely clear on this. As there was no backlash, she again used the old method to probe forward. She was once again met with the same conclusion she was desperately trying to avoid.
Whatever that mana was or did, had changed the path straight from where she came from. If before she couldn’t even probe it, now she felt absolutely nothing dangerous down that path. Not believing there was no danger as whatever that mana was, it had disappeared down that hall. As it was at this moment there was no danger. It was impossible to say what would happen if she followed after it. Just because it had ignored her didn’t mean this would stay true.
One of the largest problems was that the side paths didn’t change. Not even the left that the mana had come from. Even with three attempts, she didn’t find any different results. No matter how she tried, the best she could do was get past the large object with spikes. There was something she wasn’t able to see that kept causing her to die in her premonitions. This was a problem because she currently didn’t have a choice in what she could do. She had aligned her bone to the best of her ability. It was currently healing, and she probably wouldn’t see any detrimental effects for the foreseeable future. If she stressed it, there was the possibility to break and cause the alignment to be more off than it already was. Therefore, unless an absolute last resort, she didn’t want to try.
Bone setting was not a skill she was good at. It was fine to align it the best she could and even if it healed it wouldn’t be too hard to get it done professionally later. If she broke it a second time, setting it again would likely do nothing, as the broken ends were fragile. A second break was more likely to not break the bone across but fracture the bone sideways, causing it to separate into many different pieces. At that point, if she was allowed to keep her leg, it would already be a miracle.
With no other choice, she finally came to a decision as she got up. Even if she didn’t feel any danger, she didn’t stop taking precautions. She didn’t move quickly, and instead was ready to turn around and escape at a moment's notice. She wasn’t even waiting for anything dangerous, the second she felt danger she would leave immediately.
Two hours later, she sat down as she tried to catch her breath. It was unknown if she was happy or sad at the current situation. The distance she covered was not a large amount, but it wasn’t anything to look down on. She was moving slowly, only the further she traveled, the more unnerved she felt. This was the longest distance she had traveled without a single trap, this caused her to feel relaxed, which in turn made her even more uncomfortable.
Because of her fears, she was building tension in her body that made her slow down even more. In a vicious cycle, caused her to move too slowly. It was one thing not to rush, as she was going she was becoming more and more exhausted as her emotions kept rising and falling while making her overall condition worse. This caused a psychological burden on her body. She actually felt more comfortable moving with John, as every two steps they were attacked by a random trap.
Knowing that your enemy was about to attack was better than moving with the thought that you might be attacked with each step. As she tried to calm down, she subconsciously entered a meditative state. It wasn’t just useful for connecting to the world and absorbing mana. Meditation allowed one to calm themselves for difficult issues they would possibly face. Only after a few more hours did she finally stand back up as she felt a bit refreshed.
Very quickly as she left, she was quickly drawn into a hazy mess. This was because it was getting darker. In fact, the hall in front of her had lost all light. Even before, there was a slight glow from the wall, but at this point it disappeared and left her staring at a dark hallway with shadows that continued to shift left and right. She didn’t hesitate for too long, after making sure there wasn’t danger she continued forward. She moved slower as without being able to see, she was a bit worried she might trip or fall.
As if to prove this fact, within thirty steps she had stepped forward and the ground moved from under her. She wasn’t able to stop herself from falling, but she was able to catch herself as she quickly rolled to the side. It was reactionary, she did it subconsciously to avoid any traps that might have been triggered. But very quickly she regretted her actions.
Gritting her teeth, she had to use her hands to wipe the floor as she grabbed at her side with the other. Getting on her knees, she pulled an object that had stabbed into her side. She patted the area and could feel a little bit of blood, but it wasn’t too bad. Holding up what appeared to be a small rock. Using mana she was able to barely make out a tear in her shirt. Rolling on the ground had caused a rock to stab into her, causing a small stab wound that was barely deep enough to draw blood.
Even using more mana, she wasn’t able to see much more. But she was able to see a number of round rocks of differing size and shapes spread out on the floor. This caused her thoughts to race as she slowly swept the floor in front of her with her foot. Not a perfect solution, though she wouldn’t fell doing it this way. Without much delay, she was able to see the shadows of what appeared to be a wall with a very large hole. She couldn’t help but stop. It was clear that this wasn’t a wall. Not unless there was a dead end. Otherwise, it was a set of doors.
But nothing in history had been able to damage the walls or any part of the structures. It was questionable whether this was true or not, but it was said that Grade S individuals and even a dragon had attempted to destroy the walls, but they failed. Because nobody had succeeded, it might just be a rumor, but as time went on it started to become believable. So then what was able to destroy this wall?
She couldn’t help but squeeze her fingers into a fist, the pain helped her clear her head. She really didn’t want to go into the opening. But she came to this point because she didn’t have a choice. When she checked the hole for danger, she was able to feel that there was nothing. At least not close to the opening. As she tried to probe deeper by releasing mana she hit a wall. She had never felt anything like this before.
Only after gathering her courage was she able to will herself to climb through the wall and reach the other side. Unlike the floor on the outside, the inside was clean with no loose stone. This sent a chill down her spine because it meant that something had broken out and not in.