Chapter 29 - Intrusion (2) (2/2)
Then the possibility that this was another challenger was low.
Of course, I didn’t blindly believe the tower’s guidance, but it just seemed unlikely.
The only possibility left was a monster who could wield weapons as well as humans could.
“…If something like that exists, I’ll be in trouble.’
Just the couple of monsters that popped into my head sent shivers down my spine.
‘I’ll keep my guard up.’
Something like that could kill me in an instant.
Tensing every muscle in my body, I stepped farther into the cave’s depths.
One step, two steps, three…
Corpses seemed to pile up higher and higher as I make my way forward.
‘How many did it kill…’
The bigger beasts had more cuts on their corpses, and the cave walls were increasingly marked by the remnants of his bladework.
The problem was that these marks weren’t rough at all… they were smooth.
That meant the walls weren’t just scratched with the sword, but a casualty that came with this wolf massacre.
“Eye of Truth.”
「 Remnants of Aura 」
「 Grade: D- 」
「 Marks left by a highly proficient aura user. 」
This time, rather than the wall, the Eye of Truth revealed some information about the marks.
“Maybe because I was more focused on the marks and not the wall…”
What was more interesting was this thing called aura.
‘Aura.’
Was it a skill?
I wasn’t sure, but this made one thing clear.
Whoever was ahead of me was skilled enough to easily slice through stone.
It wasn’t something within my reach, even with all my new skills and stats.
Well, I could emulate it to a point but not replicate it.
‘I knew the tower wouldn’t make this easy for me.’
Things were starting to make a little more sense now.
This was what I was talking about.
I welcomed the challenge.
More risk meant more reward after all.
This would be a nice way to get stronger before the competitive trial on the 6th floor.
And it wasn’t like I could do anything about it at this point.
Might as well try to stay positive.
I tightened the grip of my left hand and marched forward.
I was prepared to react to anything that came my way using my shield.
‘If I block it with a shield and activate the skill, I should be able to deal with most attacks.’
It was then—
Kraaaaaw…!
My entire body shivered as a beastly scream pierced straight through my heart.
‘What the…’
Then a message popped up in front of me.
「 The trial target, werewolf, has died. 」
“What?”
I couldn’t even begin to comprehend the message in front of me.
‘What? The objective of this trial just suddenly dropped dead?’
I stared blankly and as if the tower wanted to reply, another message showed up.
「 Determining the cause…. 」
「 The challenger does not die because they did not satisfy the failure requirements. 」
「 The time left will not decrease until the proper cause is determined. 」
To my relief, this didn’t count as a failure.
Yet seeing that message just made me more nervous.
That meant even the tower didn’t know what exactly killed that werewolf…
At least I knew that something completely unexpected happened here.
‘Fuck.’
A primal instinct deep inside of me was urging me to take flight.
It didn’t know from what, but it knew I was in danger.
As I froze in place, the system sent another message.
「 Interpretation complete. 」
「 We have found evidence of intrusion in challenger Han Sungyeun’s trial. 」
Intrusion— as in, someone broke in without permission.
‘Wait, is that even possible?’
I knew for a fact that there wasn’t a way to get into any trials that weren’t yours.
What could they have possibly done to have this happen?
In my confusion, the tower provided an answer.
「 Recalibrating the trial objective. 」
To exactly what I needed to do.
「 A feature not yet available in the Earth dimension, ‘Intrusion’ has occurred. 」
「 Please eliminate the invading challenger from another dimension. 」
Just the fact that there was a solution was a huge weight off my chest.
No matter what happened, an ‘enemy’ still existed, and I’d be able to continue after killing them.
The only thing that bothered me was the way they said, ‘another dimension.’
‘Like it’s saying that there are more worlds similar to our Earth…’
A series of rough breaths echoed from the dark end of the tunnel.
Clack, clack.
I’d never heard a more terrifying noise as my body froze in fear.
Like a prey standing in front of its predator, I couldn’t even breathe.
“…”
As I stood there, wary of what was beyond the tunnel, a figure began to form.
The revealed figure looked like a knight straight out of the medieval era.
Covered from head to toe in black armor, with a bloodied sword to complete the outfit.
He didn’t fit into the surroundings, almost as he was photoshopped in.
“…Hm, I thought you would have died off already. I guess you’re still this trial’s owner huh?”
It wasn’t important that I somehow understood a language I had never heard before.
Every alarm in my body was ringing before I could even think about anything.
“I didn’t know your primitive kind would still be alive. This is gonna be fun.”
Now this, I didn’t expect.
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Ayo this is getting lit
They abouta go multiverse on this thing
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