Chapter 52
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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 52
Chapter Title: A Small Door
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A small door.
The boy and girl standing before it exchanged glances.
“Shall we go in now?”
“Yeah.”
At the boy Abel’s question, May nodded.
It had already been ten minutes since they first spotted the door.
They had planned to head straight in at first, but not knowing what might lie beyond, they judged it wiser to rest a bit despite the risks.
In any case, it was time to press on now.
“Phew.”
Abel let out a short breath and gripped the doorknob.
He had no idea what awaited beyond this doorknob.
Sure, he’d cleared this ruin dozens of times in the game, but he had zero clues to gauge their current situation.
‘The entrance we took was a side path I’d never even seen in the game.’
That meant he couldn’t pinpoint their exact location in the ruin, and he hadn’t spotted anything identifiable along the way.
On top of that, they’d bolted frantically at the very end.
Even a hardcore gamer worse than him would be stumped.
‘I just hope there’s nothing dangerous.’
With that thought, Abel steadied himself and slowly pulled the door open.
Grreeeak-.
Perhaps slightly warped, it took considerable force before it budged.
Abel peered anxiously beyond it, listening to the scraping sound of the door against the floor.
The first thing that met his eyes was a long passageway.
Nothing particularly noteworthy up to this point.
That was when Abel noticed a strange drawing on one of the walls.
‘That’s it!’
He had to school his expression right away.
He didn’t want May beside him getting suspicious.
Keeping a straight face, he pointed at the open door.
“Let’s go. Doesn’t look like any traps.”
“Yeah.”
May nodded and crossed the threshold with Abel.
At first glance, the wall drawing resembled a child’s wild scribble.
But Abel knew exactly what it was.
‘Actual letters.’
These were script deeply tied to the ruin—and a sign they’d reached a specific section.
‘The Trial Zone.’
The ruin was divided into three zones.
Zone 1, where they’d just been, was what people generally called the ‘Labyrinth.’
And this was Zone 2: the Trial Zone.
For Abel, the situation wasn’t bad. No, it was actually pretty great.
Thanks to stumbling into that side path by accident, they’d cleared the Labyrinth Zone faster than anticipated.
But he couldn’t celebrate recklessly.
‘Difficulty-wise, this place outranks Zone 1.’
Zone 2 wasn’t something you could luck through.
Fail to meet the conditions, and no matter how quick you were in Zone 1, you’d wander endlessly.
Of course, that only applied to regular folks. Not Abel.
For starters, fulfilling one key condition slashed the difficulty: the ability to read the script.
Normally, you’d bring a character with a special trait for it, but Abel found that inefficient. He’d deciphered the in-game script himself and memorized the whole thing.
“That’s script.”
“Huh?”
May turned a puzzled look from the wall engravings at Abel’s words.
Abel said brazenly, face unchanging.
“Saw the same stuff in a ruin I hit before. I can make basic sense of it.”
“You can interpret it...?”
“Picked it up eavesdropping.”
“That possible?”
“Back then, every bit of knowledge boosted survival odds.”
He threw in his orphan backstory to nip any follow-up, and May fell silent.
Truth was, he’d crammed through all-nighters to make the game easier.
Abel slowly deciphered the script.
“The one who harbors fire... gazes upon the heights. Sincere worship shall open the way.”
“...What’s that mean?”
“No clue on any hidden layers. Some kinda riddle?”
Abel played dumb, but he already knew the answer.
‘Pattern I’ve seen a ton.’
Faster to demonstrate than explain.
“Let’s head up ahead first? Could be a hint tied to the surroundings.”
“Sure.”
May nodded, seeing the logic.
And so they advanced slowly.
Before long, a fork appeared ahead, strong heat wafting from it.
At the fork, they confirmed the heat came from the right.
‘Normally, you’d take left here.’
Without grasping the script’s meaning, the safe bet was left, then figure out passage somehow.
But not this time.
“Let’s check what’s there first.”
Abel said it and stepped right, giving May no time to mull.
She hesitated briefly but followed soon after, and they quickly spotted something.
A massive statue—not ordinary, flames roaring from its chest.
May realized as much, her face stiffening as she glanced at Abel.
Abel whispered low.
“The one who harbors fire—that’s gotta be the statue, right?”
“Seems like.”
“Then what’s ‘gazes upon the heights’ mean?”
May pondered at his words, then pointed at the statue’s face as realization dawned.
“Its pupils are aimed slightly upward.”
“Oh. Yeah?”
Abel stared at the statue, feigning deep thought, then spoke.
“The earlier phrases all pointed at stuff. Harbors fire. Gazes upon the heights. Last one probably same?”
“Sincere worship shall open the way?”
“Yeah. Worship usually means...”
With that, Abel dropped flat to the floor in prostration.
The classic pose that sprang to mind.
May eyed him dubiously, but Abel ignored her and peered ahead.
‘Sincere worship shall open the way.’
Take it at face value.
Flat on the ground like this, survey the surroundings.
“Found it!”
The path really was there.
“Voice too loud...!”
May blurted in startlement, but Abel just gestured.
“You try prostrating.”
Urged on, May reluctantly flattened beside him. She looked where he indicated and her eyes flew wide.
Prostrate on the floor, a ‘door’ in the ground came into view—behind the statue’s legs.
“The one who harbors fire gazes upon the heights. Sincere worship shall open the way. That’s gotta be it?”
“But how do we reach it?”
Abel answered May’s question simply.
“Crawl like this? Statue’s gaze is up, and it says ‘gazes upon the heights.’”
He tacked on.
“I’ll go first, check for danger.”
“Wai...”
No lengthy convincing—Abel left protesting May behind and crawled forward.
The closer he got, the fiercer the statue’s radiating heat.
Sweat poured off Abel, but he pressed on.
Luckily not far, and soon he passed the legs to reach the door.
“Hup.”
Yanking the floor handle hard, it creaked open.
“It’s open! May! Come here like this!”
Anxiously watching May steeled her expression in resolve.
She crawled forward, prostrate.
The statue stayed inert until she reached Abel.
“Phew.”
Even level-headed May had been tense; she sighed in relief on arrival.
‘Feels like I’ve seen more of her today than months at the academy.’
Abel had the inane thought as he pointed at the door.
“Me first again?”
“No. You look awful.”
May shook her head firmly; Abel mustered an awkward smile.
Truthfully, his condition wasn’t even politely good.
Better than right after waking, but short rest then overdoing it meant pain creeping back.
“Yeah. I’ll follow right behind.”
“Okay.”
A ladder led down from the open door.
May glanced at the statue, then carefully set foot on the ladder.
Abel waited a beat, then descended the same way.
The ladder was fairly long. Midway, the surroundings shifted.
Tap, tap, tap, tap-!
Sparks flew with the sounds, brightly illuminating everything.
Peering down, he saw May just touching down.
Abel hurried after, feet hitting solid ground as he scanned around.
“This is bigger. Way too spacious for a regular passage.”
The prior one hadn’t been narrow.
A Tito-grade Gigant could squeeze through, barely operational.
But this exceeded that.
“Only one path, straight ahead.”
May murmured after quietly surveying.
“Yeah. No direction worries—convenient.”
“We’re heading deeper, aren’t we.”
Abel paused at May’s words before replying.
“Probably.”
“Too late to backtrack now...”
“The midway passage collapsed anyway.”
May glanced up at the ladder, then lowered her gaze and spoke.
“You know there’s an exit at the ruin’s end?”
“Yeah.”
“Think we can make it?”
Abel suddenly noticed May shivering faintly.
May always looked spaced out, detached from the world.
Unflappable and stoic no matter what—that was May.
But it wasn’t innate strength.
Just a defense mechanism shielding her from past memories.
And this situation dredged those up.
So Abel spoke with utter certainty.
“We can.”
“Really?”
“Yep. We’ll grab some epic artifacts on the way out.”
He exaggerated deliberately; May blanked for a sec, then smiled softly.
“Yeah. Hope so.”
“Alright. Let’s move.”
“I’ll take point.”
“No need.”
“Easier that way. Don’t wanna carry you if you get hurt again.”
“...Sure.”
They walked onward, trading idle chatter.