Chapter 174 (1/2)
The 68th floor’s trial The challengers would split into two groups and each encounter a chamber with a Rank 13 Orichalcum Devil Statue, a Golem in the form of a Demon
The two Orichalcum Golems had to be defeated within ten seconds of each other, in other words alers failed to do this, the Orichalcuht that this was a trial based on one of the powers that Solder was given by Peria, the Goddess of water and knowledge This ability was one that allowed her to unify and share her consciousness, knowledge and experiences with those of her co Grounds, this ability not only allowed Solder to share her knowledge and experience to help with technological development, but also helped her command her allies in battle
Of course, even without the saers were able to defeat the Orichalcus would eventually line up and they would be able to pass through the trial
“It’s finally here, the Orichalcum Golem Battle! TIME TO RETURN THE FAVOOOOOR!” Borkus bellowed
“OOOOOHN!” Knochen groaned
“JYUOOOOH!” roared Bone Man
The three of theainst the Orichalcu Vida’s relic
“I’ you, that’s a different statue!” Eleanora reminded them as she joined them in the fierce assault on the Orichalcum Devil Statue
The Orichalcum Devil Statue was considerably inferior to the Golem that had been created by the Goddess Vida; its movements were slowed down as Knochen covered it with bones, and then Bone Man’s blades and Borkus’s and Eleanora’s Deic swords cut it into pieces
“Now,” said Vandalieu’s clone as standing and watching froht before the Orichalcum Devil Statue’s functions ceased completely
“Please defeat it within ten seconds,” said the real Vandalieu
“Allowthe Orichalcum Devil Statue’s ’s fur
“Llla~♪” sang Yai… cal!” groaned Rapiéçage with a swing of her Death-Iron-covered fist
“This is for back then!” roared Vigaro, unleashi+ng a reckless attack with his newly-made Death Iron axe
His axe returned to liquid forrasped by one of his hands
“Death Burst Axe Blade!”
Vigaro activated a Death Lion Axe Technique ed in
“Uoooh…”
Unable to withstand the fierce attacks co from every possible direction, the Orichalcu
“It won’t regenerate, will it?” said Eleanora in the first rooaro roared triumphantly in the second
The physical and spirit-form Vandalieu, one of as in each rooather the Orichalcum and proceed?” said the spirit-form Vandalieu
“If I’m not mistaken, the corridor ahead of this room should join with the corridor from the other,” said the physical Vandalieu
His spirit-form clones constantly shared the same memories and consciousness as hi
The trial on the next floor, the 69th, was one that tested the challengers’surface was covered in decorations that induced hallucinations of the ers’ sense of direction The challengers would hear a harsh, echoing noise that caused fear and irritation, and even the air was filled with a tor scent
And the entire floor was built like a labyrinth, with ers’ path
This was likely a trial based on one of the abilities given to Ark by Ricklent, the genie of tiic It was the ability that rendered her i those caused by illusions and poison
Even without possessing the same ability as Ark, it was possible to clear this trial with ic Iteo in a straight line?” suggested Saria
“The Gole It s about it?”
“I can move the walls with my Labyrinth Creation Skill, but I don’t knohere this floor’s exit is, so there’s not much point It seems that the exit won’t appear until we proceed past a certain point,” said Vandalieu “As for the smell, the sht that it’s rather pointless”
As the Living-Armor-type Undead Saria and Rita had senses that were different from those of humans and Vandalieu had a different mental structure as well as the Grotesque Mind Skill, this was nothing more than a labyrinth with Golee, so theythrough it while keeping their left hands on the wall
The trial of the 70th floor was an arts-and-crafts trial
When the party entered the rooht-attribute e depicted a person who appeared to be a crafts creation-related Skills to carve a statue, make a clay jar and repair a pot with a hole in it
Challengers had to carry each of these tasks out in a separate room with theforcibly teleported to the supply area, and they would have to face the false iain
This was a trial based on the ability granted to the champion Hill by Botin, mother of the earth and Goddess of craftsmanshi+p This ability allowed Hill to learn any creation-related Skill he saithin a single day
This trial was another trial that could be cleared without the chah-Level creation-related Skills
“Well then, shall we go to the next floor?” said Vandalieu, who possessed multiple creation-related Skills that had fused with the Goleined it would be,” said Tarea, who norreat help on this floor
The trial of the 71st floor was fare pot full of grain seeds, plant the the seeds, there were soers would have to use their knowledge, intuition and life-attribute ic to detere their growth
This was a trial based on the divine protection that the champion Zakkart received from Vida, the Goddess of life and love This divine protection granted Zakkart reater affinity for the life attribute
This was the simplest trial of the trials since the 68th floor It could be cleared by an expert in life-attribute eon to find the successor to Zakkart, it was only common sense to include a ic
As for Vandalieu, he used Detect Life to pick out several seeds that had a relatively strong reaction, absorb the Technique, a part of his Group Binding Technique Skill, to rapidly accelerate their growth
“… This grain, is it an original strain of rice? Let’s take it with us,” said Vandalieu
Deciding that the grains were precious referenceof the rice cultivated where the Scylla lived, he carried them with him inside his body as he moved on
And now, the party was on the 72nd floor This was the floor decorated with statues of those who seeers froe
The enorate bore an inscription reading: “Those who have chosen worthless heroes and prayed to worthless Gods, as a reward for reaching this place, burn into your memory the fate of your predecessors”
As the inscription said, there was a countless nuate and walls were decorated with statues consisting only of torsos, heads or lile statue had elaborate detail If one examined the heads closely, they would see the earholes and the tongues and teeth inside the uish made it difficult to believe that these were mere creative pieces
It was as if the dead had been petrified at the moment that life slipped froe created by Gufadgarn to break the wills of any mistaken followers of Alda whosketches of the statues that looked as if they would cause“But what has caused the De creatures; is it a curse or earth-attribute ic? Or could it be that these are simply stone statues made to look exactly like the corpses?” hethe statue of a person whose abdoans
“It doesn’t look like they scare you, Luciliano,” said Pauvina, looking down at the back of Luciliano’s head
“nobody’s… scared,” Rapiéçage groaned
It wasn’t just Luciliano that showed no fear at the sight of the statues of the corpses; al one of Vandalieu’s companions made them accustomed to corpses; so since stopped being shaken by the sight of the dead
“Maybe I feel a little sorry for theross,” said Privel with a pale face, not completely accustomed to corpses
“… Whenever I see human and Elf corpses, they look like powerless civilians that have been slaughtered to rown up inside the Boundary Mountain Range, where huenerally non-combatants
“So, Dannsama, what do you think?” Bell to determine whether the statues really were petrified corpses
It see let out a surprised screa when looking at these stone statues
“I’m ninety percent sure that they’re petrified corpses,” Vandalieu replied, his arm turned into spirit for around inside one of the statues “It’s not just the wounds; the internal structure of the unharmed parts of the bodies are elaborately preserved The bones, the brain and even the blood vessels It’s possible that ic was used to elaborately recreate the bodies, but there’s no reason to go that far to make fakes… even with my Golem Creation Skill, it would be an immense task to recreate the capillary vessels”
“That is indeed overthinking the details Are there any other reasons why you are only ninety percent sure?” Bellmond asked
“If these stone statues really are corpses, there should be spirits haunting this area, but there’s not a single one,” said Vandalieu
Judging froruesoeon With that being the case, it was unnatural for there to be no spirits haunting this place, regardless of how poorly their memories and personalities from their past lives were preserved
“Really? There’s a whole swarm of them around you, kid” said Borkus
“Like Borkus-san says, all of these spirits have been floating around near you since we entered the Trial of Zakkart,” said Darcia
“Borkus, Mom, those are the spirits that ith eon,” said Vandalieu
The Undead Borkus and Darcia, as a spirit herself, could see spirits But there was always a countless number of spirits around Vandalieu, so it seemed that they were unable to tell whether they were from the petrified corpses or not
“Now that you ht back “It’s true that I haven’t seen any spirits other than the ones around the kid”
“Really? I do re quite a few monster souls,” said Saria
“Nee-san, those are the spirits of the le spirit after entering a new floor before fighting eon?” said Saria
Even in Dungeons other than the Trial of Zakkart, each floor contained a large nu each other if their nu feelings of hatred or a lingering attachment to life, so their souls quickly returned to the circle of transration This was especially true for eons, as their eons
Thus, it wasn’t rare for challengers to not encounter a single spirit haunting a Dungeon unless there were other challengers up ahead or monsters had killed each other iers have died, so I don’t think it would be strange for their spirits to be haunting this place,” said Vandalieu
The stone statues were countless in nuers’ corpses were not intact, there was no way to know exactly how many there were But it looked like there were about a thousand of them
Unlike monster spirits, it was easy for the spirits of people to for attachment to life, so there were cases where they haunted the world for hundreds of years without returning to the circle of transers who had lost their lives while they were trying to achieve their drea attachnificant
“But Vandalieu-sama, surely that does not apply for those whose heads are destroyed in a single blow and those who are taken by surprise and fatally wounded by a single attack?” said Isla
“Ah, that’s possible,” said Vandalieu
As Isla pointed out, those who died before they even kneould return to the circle of trans attachnificant number of them had died instantly
“But the ites of hatred left on theine that all of them died that way,” said Vandalieu “Well, it is possible that all of their feelings of hatred were left on the ite and then their spirits returned peacefully to the circle of transration”
“… I don’t really like that,” said Isla
“If I could do an autopsy, I’d be able to tell whether they died instantly with a single blow or not, but that’s hard when they’re petrified,” said Isis, one of Legion’s personalities “Even if that’s the case, isn’t it unnatural that there isn’t a single spirit? I thought that this ht just be a place where the corpses are kept rather than the place they died, but there’s not even an insect spirit to be seen here”
“If that’s the case, athered the spirits in another place or purified theet in the way of the trials if they beca about the here,” Darcia said in conclusion
Indeed, there was nothing to be done
“So, Bocchan, e do? Should we search for the statue of the Elf wo the discussion back to the main topic