Chapter 95
Chapter 95
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 95
Chapter Title: Mysterious Existence
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“...Come to think of it, this place really is a strange space...”
“......”
I listened to the old man in silence.
Whoosh!
Cool night air brushed against my cheek.
Yeah.
In a space this ordinary.
Someone was watching me?
“Hey, kid. Don’t worry too much. That presence? It just seems curious about you. No hostility that I can see.”
‘Is that so? Still feels off to me.’
“Heh heh. If there was hostility, your scrawny little neck would’ve been sliced clean off by now.”
Drip.
Sweat trickled down.
A chill ran up my spine.
‘So what do I do?’
“What do you mean, what do you do? Just keep doing what you’re doing. That thing’s beyond anything you could handle anyway. There’s nothing more foolish than trying to scheme against an unstoppable force.”
The old man, hands clasped behind his back, looked utterly nonchalant.
This old coot.
Why’s he getting on my nerves more than usual today?
‘Fair enough.’
If it weren’t for him, I wouldn’t even know someone was watching.
I decided to just relax.
Like he said.
There wasn’t anything I could do about it.
‘By the way.’
Tilt.
I cocked my head.
‘What do you mean, a strange space?’
He’d let it slip casually.
That this place was a really strange space.
“This place was artificially created by someone, right?”
‘Yes.’
Dungeon Maker Delilah’s dungeon.
You could guess it just from her epithet.
“Hmm. Compressing space endlessly to escape the pull of gravity... and using that to gain freedom over time. Heh, quite the novel and ingenious method.”
“...?”
I tilted my head even further.
‘...What does that mean?’
It was total gibberish to me.
“Ahem. I figured you’d get it after that much... Talking to a non-genius really wears me out.”
The old man stroked his chin playfully.
‘If you know that, explain it simply and clearly. Stop teasing.’
As I grumbled inwardly, the old man continued.
“The dungeon we’re in right now? It has weaker gravity than the space in your world.”
‘Gravity?’
“Yeah. They shrink the world inside the dungeon endlessly. Then they shrink you and the other participants and put you in there. That makes the gravity of the whole world ‘relatively’ weaker.”
‘...And?’
I looked at him, baffled.
So what?
“Tsk. Still don’t get it?”
‘Does getting smaller let you gain freedom over time?’
“If you don’t know, just say you don’t know.”
‘Yes. I have no clue at all.’
“Hmm, is that so?”
The old man’s smile deepened.
Like he was enjoying this.
Ah.
So that’s it?
I could kind of sense how he felt.
He was having fun.
Enjoying the thrill of teaching.
Lately, since I’d been handling things on my own, his influence had felt a bit diminished.
Now that there was something new to teach, he was probably feeling all puffed up again.
“Kid, do you know how many times a dragonfly beats its wings per second?”
“......”
Dragonfly?
Hmm.
Maybe twenty or thirty times a second?
“It varies by type and size, of course. From thirty times a second up to a hundred for some. So... why do you think they’re faster than humans?”
‘Because they’re small?’
I pondered hard before answering inwardly.
‘If time flows differently based on size, then yeah, smaller things would seem faster than bigger ones.’
I remembered seeing it in cartoons before.
Giants much bigger than the hero moving in slow motion, going [Uoooh~].
If that was because their bodies were actually that huge?
Ah.
So that’s what the old man meant.
Time flows relatively.
“Heh heh. Finally starting to get it.”
The old man nodded, looking pleased.
“Dragonflies aren’t doing anything special. They’re just flapping their wings like we do. Once or twice a second, working hard at it. But that’s dragonfly time. Not our time.”
‘So a dragonfly’s one second flows much slower than ours.’
“Exactly. That’s the principle.”
According to the old man.
Time in this dungeon flows much slower than on Earth.
Spend a few months here, and maybe only a day passes back there.
I suddenly recalled that SF movie I’d seen, Interstellar.
‘Yeah, it was like that there too.’
They went down to a planet close to a black hole for a bit.
And fifty years passed on Earth.
The stronger the gravity, the faster time flows.
So weaker gravity should make time flow slower, right?
Oh, thinking of it that way, it really was a clever idea.
‘But why?’
Why did Delilah make time flow slower here?
Like time was precious to her.
Like she wanted to raise a ton of hunters in a short time.
“......”
Did she have some mission to elevate the hunters’ levels?
‘Ah?’
A thought flashed through my mind.
That someone watching me.
Who they were.
‘Definitely not a participant, at least.’
No rankers among the participants.
Breaking through Eldrin’s spell alarm trap would require ranker level at minimum.
‘No way.’
I remembered what Magic Swordsman Lüka had said.
- Let me introduce myself first.
- I’m Lüka, the senior examiner for this trial.
- Epithet: Magic Swordsman. World ranking 25th.
He’d definitely said it.
‘Senior examiner.’
‘Senior’ implies there are others!
‘Old man.’
I called out to him inwardly.
“What’s with you all of a sudden, kid?”
‘That presence watching me earlier.’
“Oh, that one?”
‘Yes, that one. Where is it right now?’
“Hmm. Still right next to you, tilting its head.”
‘Next to me, exactly where?’
I shot to my feet.
Closed my eyes.
‘If it really is an examiner.’
Finding it wouldn’t hurt me.
Its goal is to evaluate, not harm.
“Hmm. About three steps at 55 degrees left from your line of sight.”
‘Thanks, old man.’
Wooong!
I activated the Azure Sky Heart Method.
Then casually walked toward the direction he indicated.
“Phew, nice night air.”
Muttering like someone out for a midnight stroll.
‘This the spot?’
“Yeah. Right beside you on the right, staring blankly. Heh heh, it’s impressive too. Moving like it’s 100% sure you won’t catch it?”
‘Hmm. You sure? Not pulling my leg?’
“Hey now, you doubting your master?”
‘Alright then.’
I quietly signaled Eldrin.
To secretly loose arrows at the spot the old man described.
No hesitation in something like this.
Hesitate, and you’re caught.
Shoosh!
Just then, Eldrin’s arrow barrage rained down.
Whoosh!
And the nearby sun joined in with its skill, Solar Flame Strike.
Perfect!
On top of that.
I unleashed a full-power thrust to my right.
“Eek?!”
A young woman’s startled voice rang out.
Thud!
With that sound, the ranker’s identity was revealed.
Her face was already filled with shock.
“W-What?! Out of nowhere? How did you even know?!”
She yelled, sounding utterly baffled.
“Hah.”
I let out a disbelieving chuckle.
“Before that. Shouldn’t you introduce yourself first?”
It’d been about a week since I dropped into this place.
And I’d finally found another examiner.
* * *
Mystical Hall.
The circular space was plastered wall-to-wall with countless holograms.
Each one capturing the movements of various hunters in detail.
“......”
In the center of that massive hall stood a certain presence, lips sealed in silence.
She wore a hood that almost seemed holy.
Her name was Delilah.
The being known to the world as the Mirage.
Sss.
Someone else appeared behind her.
A sturdy-built man.
The red-eyed Magic Swordsman, Lüka.
“Delilah.”
“You’re here, Lüka.”
“Um, one of the examiners has already been spotted.”
“......I just confirmed it too.”
She raised her hand.
Pointing to one of the holograms.
It showed Joo Dong-hoon and a certain girl.
“......Thunderclap, huh.”
Thunderclap Ploa.
A German ranker, a solid 84th.
“Unbelievable. How could a no-rank even spot an examiner this soon...”
Lüka muttered in disbelief.
Not just any examiner?
To become an examiner in “Delilah’s Trial,” you needed to be top 100 at least.
Real rankers, a cut above the other three-digit ones.
“Look here. That Joo Dong-hoon guy? He’s already over 20,000 trial points.”
“......In just a week?”
Lüka couldn’t close his mouth.
“Yeah, this newbie’s got something special.”
She smiled softly.
Looking genuinely pleased.
“Is this okay? Back then, even first place only hit ten thousand points in a month...”
“Nothing wrong with it.”
Delilah blinked.
“I just provide the dungeon. The participants use any means necessary inside to grab the highest rewards. The better rewards they get, the better it is for us, right?”
“......”
Lüka nodded silently.
He was one of those who’d benefited from Delilah.
He knew.
How much she hated interfering with the dungeon.
Dungeons were relative.
The higher the difficulty, the greater the rewards proportional to the participants’ achievements.
The only thing she did was...
‘Make the dungeon as hard as possible.’
Lüka nodded.
That’s why rankers were born every year from her trials.
No more, no less.
“What, jealous? Worried that kid’ll climb higher than you by raking in rewards here?”
“N-No.”
Lüka shook his head.
“I’m just here for the senior examiner reward. No greed beyond that. It’s just... I’m worried...”
“That the gap with the other participants will get too wide?”
“More like... worried Thunderclap made a mistake...”
“You know better than anyone that’s not a concern, Magic Swordsman.”
“True...”
Delilah had bound the examiners with restrictions.
They could harass participants.
But never help them.
The moment they intended to help, disqualification.
“But examiners weren’t supposed to appear until a month in... That’s when trial point uses would’ve been revealed...”
“Don’t worry too much, Lüka.”
“......”
“There’s no ‘should have’ in this world. Remember that. We’re just spectators. Joo Dong-hoon finding Ploa? That’s entirely his right. Luck or skill, doesn’t matter. Just stick to your examiner role, Magic Swordsman. Got it?”
“......Understood.”
Bow.
Lüka lowered his head.
In respect to rank 5.
And then.
Sss!
His form faded, vanishing in an instant.