The Inverted Pyramid and the Sphinx (Part 1)
Jang Pomi had exactly one hundred minutes left until she entered the pyramid.
During that time, she needed to gather exactly seventy-six fragments.
That meant one fragment took her more than one minute of digging each.
Seok Dong-mi and Ki Ju-hye were bringing two or three, maybe four or five if they really pushed themselves, but it was nowhere near enough to be useful.
In the end, I was going to have to do almost all of it myself.
“Heh… heh… heh…”
The lucky compass was already giving me absolute support.
Without the magic magnet’s help from the start, gathering all the fragments from the Blessing Pottery in just two hours would have been impossible.
But even with the compass pointing out the exact locations, it wasn’t like anyone could just dig one every minute or so.
**SWISH-SWISH-SWISH-SWISH-SWISH-SWISH!**
My insane digging ability, boosted by the +Strength stat, items, and experience, was the only reason I was even managing this!
Plus, the **Shovel Leap** skill was helping a ton.
[Selected Skill: Shovel Leap.]
Overview: Grip one shovel in each hand, jump off with the aid of momentum, and slam the shovels into the ground for a sudden long-distance leap.
Duration: 1 second.
Cooldown: 30 seconds.
Every one of the one hundred chambers on the first floor of the pyramid was thirty meters by thirty meters.
Normally, digging with a full stamina bar and running nonstop would have left me exhausted in no time.
**WHOOOOSH—**
But using Shovel Leap kept my stamina fresh and shaved off precious time. It was perfect.
With the thirty-second cooldown, I could keep using it as much as I wanted.
But not everything went according to plan.
The biggest problem was still the sudden bursts of Mummies attacking.
[Chamber Mummy has been released.]
(34/100)
[Chamber Mummy has been released.]
(33/100)
[Chamber Mummy has been released.]
(32/100)
* * *
**Eeeeh… hu hu hu… eeeh…**
No matter how hard Ji-min screamed, my Curse Bard couldn’t drag aggro all the way into the deepest corners of this vast pyramid.
So I kept running into the occasional Mummy stragglers along the edges.
**SCHLAAK!**
Of course, pouring sand on them with my shovel dropped them instantly.
Since I wasn’t bothering to seal the spots, they’d respawn later anyway, but I had no intention of ever coming back to the same location. No big deal.
Still, these things were subtly annoying.
First, Mummies were bigger and stronger than Rotters.
And unlike Rotters, whose touch was neutralized by armor, Mummies would curse anyone who just brushed against them even through the armor.
So I had to stay vigilant, watch for them, and move to the next chamber before time ran out. Every second counted.
And when about fifty minutes had passed—half the allotted time…
Damn it.
I’d only found thirty fragments?
I was crushed.
If this kept up, by the time the hundred minutes were over I’d have around sixty fragments.
Even if Seok Dong-mi and Ki Ju-hye gave it everything, they couldn’t clear ten. So I’d end up gathering them while Jang Pomi was already inside.
Jang Pomi alone was terrifying enough, but her S-class and A-class hunters from the Jeguk Guild would be absolute nightmares.
Worst case, I’d just lay down waypoints and dive underground?
But if that happened—
Ji-min would die here as an old woman.
Ki Ju-hye would be killed for keeping her mouth shut.
So I got bolder and ramped up the speed.
* * *
Ah—
Aaaah—
This is too hard.
I just wanted a second to close my eyes.
[Inside the pyramid, **Digging Luck** does not apply.]
[No Gold is granted.]
[No random lucky items are granted.]
That made the random lucky items feel especially painful.
A Mana Vitamin drink would have been nice right about now…
* * *
Finally, the hundred minutes were up.
Sixty-three!
Adding the twenty-four I already had, I now owned eighty-seven fragments!
I had to link up with the others on the southwest side ASAP.
I yelled as loud as I could.
“Ji-hye! Geumpa! Where are you guys?”
Seok Dong-mi and her junior popped up surprisingly close, both faces pale.
The second I saw them I asked,
“Ju-hye?”
Seok Dong-mi hung her head and shook it side to side.
“Ju-hye… got cursed?”
“Yeah. But… it wasn’t… my fault! A Mummy suddenly jumped out from behind…”
Even if Ju-hye was cursed, the fragments alone would fix it.
The Blessing Pottery’s power could reverse the curse.
“Where are the fragments? How many did you dig up?”
Seok Dong-mi pulled them out of her inventory and handed them over.
My stomach dropped.
Two.
Only two.
I had expected at least three or four.
I’d even allowed myself the ridiculous hope of ten.
But the result was two.
Guess I couldn’t blame them.
Their skill level was such that two in half a day was already impressive.
That was when—
[The lid chamber has opened.]
[Task ① of the Trial cleared.]
Shit.
Jang Pomi had already entered.
Eleven fragments left unclaimed.
Before she caught them, could I find all of them?
At that moment, Seok Dong-mi and her junior screamed in terror.
“There! Coming!”
“Hyung, I’m scared—eeuh…”
Had Jang Pomi really shown up already?
But when I turned, it wasn’t her.
The sand on the chamber floor was writhing.
Something was moving underneath.
“What the heck is that?”
Seok Dong-mi answered with half-sob, half-scream.
“Eeeuh, you cursed me, who are you! Aah…”
I followed the writhing sand.
Suddenly—
**PAAK!**
Sand exploded everywhere as a monster burst into the air.
A decaying mummy, rotten bandages wrapped around its body.
It crouched on a rock, panting, then turned its back and started laying out things one by one.
“This doesn’t fit… this one here… doesn’t fit… fits… doesn’t fit… it’s missing a piece, missing a piece… it’s missing a piece! This one doesn’t fit… this one fits… this one doesn’t fit…”
I approached warily with my shovel.
The monster’s head was almost completely gone, only a few strands left.
Its entire body was shrunken and disgusting.
Then it suddenly turned its head.
A withered old woman in her one-hundred-twenty-plus years, orange eyes glaring at me.
She sniffed the air and muttered,
“Smell… the smell of fragments… that one is carrying it… the smell of fragments… kill and find it… the fitting piece…”
Shit, it was Ju-hye?
Then Ju-hye suddenly shook her hands like a mole and dove into the sand.
The sand started crawling toward me.
I was a country boy. Hand me a shovel and digging up moles was easy.
I plunged my spade into the direction the sand was moving.
I braced and held on tight.
**THUNK!**
Something inside the sand slammed my shovel with insane force.
The one-hundred-twenty-year-old mole-headed old woman had headbutted my shovel and passed out.
I roughly dug out a spot for her to rest, then climbed onto the rock where she’d been sitting.
Sure enough, eleven fragments were lined up.
Exactly eleven.
The cursed Ju-hye had transformed into a mole and gathered them all.
*Aw, these pretty things! They’re actually helpful?*
I scooped every fragment into my inventory.
* * *
* * *
[97th fragment acquired.]
[98th fragment acquired.]
[99th fragment acquired.]
[100th fragment acquired.]
[All one hundred fragments from the one hundred chambers of the first floor have been found.]
[Task ① of the Trial completed.]
[Massive experience points gained.]
Archaeology boys specialized in digging and chiseling.
Archaeology girls specialized in puzzle solving.
I lined up the ninety-nine fragments in front of the fainted one-hundred-twenty-year-old Ju-hye, then poked her with my finger to wake her up.
**Jol~**
The old woman with the huge lump on her forehead jolted upright and, seeing the mountain of ninety-nine fragments, broke into the happiest smile imaginable.
“My fragments! My Pottery fragments! All there! Now I can fit them! Fit! Fit fit! This goes here! That goes there! Fit fit fit! Fit fit fit!”
One-hundred-twenty-year-old Ju-hye was moving the fragments at superhuman speed, exactly like a puzzle genius.
Watching the once-chubby girl now a shriveled old woman frantically trying to solve the Pottery was more grotesque than anything else in the world.
That was when a strange ancient melody drifted from far away.
**Wii-ko e-to… ra-ta… fi-bi~**
**Ra-ta… fi-bi-ang~**
It was clearly the song of the cursed Ji-min.
I immediately used the power of the Pick of Mithril Adamantium to shatter and block both the east and north entrances of the current chamber.
**Waaarrr—**
**Kuu-hoong—**
Then I prepared to collapse the south exit as well.
The song grew louder.
The old woman’s hands sped up in perfect time with the rhythm.
Soon I spotted someone sprinting toward me from the opposite chamber.
Seok Dong-mi, body covered in sweat and blood, exhausted.
Right behind her, dozens of Mummies tangled together were chasing her.
The skeleton old woman on her back was singing to lure them.
“Hurry!”
“Heh heh… eeuh…”
The moment Seok Dong-mi entered the chamber, I toppled the stacked pillar of massive boulders I’d prepared.
**Waaarrr—**
**Kuu-kung, CLANG—**
Dust exploded as the entrance was sealed.
Mummies’ hands started reaching through the rubble.
**Eeeh… hu hu hu… eeeh…**
**Eeeh… hu hu hu… eeeh…**
**Eeeh… hu hu hu… eeeh…**
I took two steps back and watched the rubble. It wouldn’t collapse anytime soon.
I turned to Seok Dong-mi.
Her body was scratched and bitten, barely recognizable. She looked like a woman who had been dragged out of a mad dog’s kennel.
Of course.
At some point she had probably stayed in full defense mode, surrounded by dozens of Mummies, taking insane amounts of damage.
Yet she still hadn’t been cursed. She must have eaten a preemptive blessing or anti-curse potion from the Empire side.
And behind Seok Dong-mi, a woman’s face was visible.
It was the shriveled face of one-hundred-plus-year-old Ji-min.
I didn’t have time to feel life’s unfairness.
I asked Seok Dong-mi directly.
“Since the Pottery is almost complete, shall we start the ritual right now?”
“Yeah… we don’t have time!”
The Pottery, with all ninety-nine fragments fitted, was bigger than I expected. It was at least the size of a small water tank on a normal house roof.
Seok Dong-mi hugged the Ji-min on her back, grunted, and hurled her into the huge Pottery.
“One’s missing… one’s missing… exactly one’s missing… exactly one… one… one more…”
Then, the old woman who had been sitting in the spot I was looking for—Ju-hye—got thrown in the same way.
Both old women struggled to leap out of the Pottery.
I rushed forward and poured sand on them with my shovel. The moment they woke up, they both leaned their heads into the Pottery.
I pulled out the final fragment I’d hidden and fitted it perfectly.
[The **Blessing Pottery** has been restored.]
[Tasks ① and ② of the Trial both completed.]
[Massive experience points gained.]
[★ Successfully passed the first-floor Pyramid Trial! ★]
[The **Blessing Pottery** has been acquired.]
[Now you can use the **Blessing Pottery** to reach the next floor of the pyramid.]
[Now you can use the **Blessing Pottery** to perform the blessing ritual.]