Chapter 144
Chapter 144
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 144
Chapter Title: The Tomb's Trial
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The next day, the entire Demon Country was in an uproar.
It was because of a statement made by Lete, the head of the Graves family, on a public broadcast.
He announced that the tomb of the Graves family's ancestor existed in an 'artificial dimension' and was filled with all sorts of priceless treasures and riches.
Furthermore, he revealed the tomb's coordinates, giving everyone who desired them a chance to claim the treasures, and publicly declared that the Graves family would neither hold anyone accountable nor exercise any rights over whatever treasures were obtained.
However, he didn't forget to add one final remark.
Only those who valued treasure more than their own lives should enter the tomb.
* * *
An artificial dimension.
A dimension not formed naturally, but arbitrarily created by some transcendent being.
Thus, it was a place that could never be found or reached without coordinates, but conversely, a place anyone could go to as long as they had them.
Like a man-made island floating alone in the vast, open sea.
*Swoosh.*
Lee Si-woo, who had successfully entered the artificial dimension through a dimensional portal with the coordinates entered, froze on the spot.
Surveying the beautiful scenery of the artificial dimension, which was like a paradise, he gave a bitter smile and said.
“My goodness. They’ve flocked here like crazy.”
Was it because all you needed were the coordinates to enter?
All sorts of people had gathered in the artificial dimension.
As Si-woo clicked his tongue at the crowd, which resembled a sickening swarm of ants, the old Orc following him patted his stooped back with his fist and said.
“What do you expect from the tomb of the ancestral demon who founded the Graves family? Moths blinded by greed can’t help but be drawn to the flame.”
Si-woo looked at the pyramid standing tall in the center of the place, which was filled with vibrant flowers and lush green trees like an island in full spring bloom, and said.
“A pyramid… What a peculiar taste. As far as I know, there are no such things as pyramids in the Main Dimension.”
As Si-woo found the appearance of a pyramid, something one would expect to see on Earth, interesting, the old Orc gave a light scolding.
“There is nothing more foolish than to discuss culture and history in the Main Dimension. Since this is a place where hundreds, even thousands, of extra-dimensional species are summoned daily, all sorts of cultures and myths are bound to get chaotically mixed up. Why else would a certain god, who found Earth's mythology fascinating, call himself Zeus?”
“It seems the gods are quite interested in other dimensions too?”
“In the past, the gods were very interested in Earth. Well, it was like a passing trend, so their interest seems to have cooled recently… No, that’s not it. Rather than their interest fading, it's more like they can't afford to pay attention?”
Having an inkling of what he meant, Si-woo asked cautiously.
“…Is it because of the Yellow Eyes?”
When Si-woo mentioned the Yellow Eyes, the old Orc nodded with a heavy expression.
“That’s right. That’s why the gods can’t answer the summoners’ desperate calls. The gods’ ecosystem is in as much of a mess as the Main Dimension's.”
“As you know, Elder, I have a contract with the Yellow Eyes. Thanks to it, I’ve been able to overcome countless crises.”
“It’s no different from living in the present at the cost of your future. Still, it’s fortunate that the one called Jin is preventing the Yellow Eyes from exercising influence over you. I can’t be sure, but if it weren’t for that Jin fellow, you would have long since fallen into her clutches.”
Si-woo said with a faint sigh.
“That’s actually why I came here. To establish a connection with the Black Night and search for traces of Jin.”
The old Orc gazed at Si-woo with his wrinkled eyes and said.
“You’d better hurry.”
Si-woo nodded silently at the old man's words, which were filled with an ominous nuance.
“I will. Hmm? But…”
Feeling a strange sense of unease, Si-woo looked around.
“Elder. Doesn’t something seem odd? The number of people seems to have decreased a bit…”
Si-woo couldn’t finish his sentence.
He lost consciousness as everything went black, as if all the lights around him had been extinguished.
* * *
When Si-woo opened his eyes, he was lying on a bed, wearing a white gown.
‘What is this?’
The strange thing was that his body, once brimming with vitality, now felt completely powerless.
He frowned at the lethargy, as if he had reverted from an adult to a child overnight.
‘Strange… I can’t feel the energy of Barathrum, or any mana.’
Suddenly, a wave of nausea rose from deep within his chest, and Si-woo gagged.
He shuddered for a moment from the discomfort, as if his insides were being turned upside down.
Seeing his reflection in the mirror of the hospital-like room, Si-woo froze like a statue.
“This is…?”
Reflected in the mirror wasn’t the diminutive form of Alma Graves, but Lee Si-woo’s own original appearance.
Broad, model-like shoulders and long, stretched-out limbs.
Black hair and black eyes.
Though it was his own body, it felt slightly unfamiliar since he had been active only as Alma recently. As Si-woo stared in bewilderment at his reflection, a status window appeared before his eyes.
[Lee Si-woo] ★★★★★★★★☆
Race: Human
Talents: Robustness, Combat, Agility, Dexterity, Charm, Iron Stamina, Great Luck, Survivor.
“What is this?”
His star rating was still 8-star, but his Talents were completely different.
There was no Crisis Detection, no Mana's Blessing.
And that wasn't all.
He had no Techniques, no unique abilities.
All he had were these incredibly ordinary Talents.
‘What’s happening to me? Could this be… the tomb’s trial Lete mentioned?’
Lete had said the tomb's trial would begin the moment one entered the artificial dimension.
And that only those who passed this trial would earn the right to the tomb's treasures.
*Bang, bang!*
Just then, someone pounded fiercely on the door of Si-woo's hospital room.
“Is anyone in there?”
At the uninvited guest's arrival, Si-woo scanned his surroundings.
The bare hospital room was devoid of anything that could be used as a weapon.
With no other choice, Si-woo’s gaze fell on the leg of the old bed he had been lying on.
*Crack.*
Whether it was because the bed was made of wood or thanks to his Robustness Talent, the bed leg snapped easily in Si-woo’s strong grip.
Having acquired a weapon that, while a bit short, was still wieldable, Si-woo cautiously opened the door.
Outside stood a blonde woman with a bewildered expression, looking as if she were on the verge of a panic attack.
“Thank goodness! Someone else is here!”
“Who are you?”
“Me? I-I’m Plenitas.”
As the blonde woman he had never seen before introduced herself as Plenitas, the second daughter of the Graves family and Alma's sister, Si-woo muttered in a low voice.
“…Plenitas?”
“Yes. Do you happen to know me?”
Si-woo replied in a blunt tone.
“Who in the Demon Country wouldn’t know the second daughter of the Graves family?”
Plenitas said, her face looking as if she were about to cry.
“Oh, thank goodness. I thought I was going crazy. I never imagined I’d suddenly turn into a human like this the moment I entered the artificial dimension! But to think there’s someone who knows me? It seems I wasn’t crazy after all.”
“Hmm, so you also became human as soon as you entered the artificial dimension?”
“Yes. Everything suddenly went dark and I lost consciousness… and then I found myself inside this strange human woman’s body. At first, I thought I was going mad or had fallen for some strange illusion… but seeing you, I think I’m starting to get a grasp of the situation.”
“Get a grasp of it…?”
“Yes. This. I think it’s the tomb’s trial my father mentioned. It’s probably some kind of trick based on strange illusion magic.”
Plenitas, never imagining that the man before her was actually Alma, asked.
“By any chance, is your original name…?”
Si-woo answered curtly.
“You don’t need to know. I’m just an ordinary treasure hunter.”
“Tch, how cheap. By the way, did your Talents change too? I have six completely different Talents, and I’m about to lose my mind.”
“Yes. My Talents have also all changed to things I’ve never heard of.”
“Did you also get Talents like ‘Gourmet’ or ‘Sensitive Smell’?”
They didn't sound particularly useful, so Si-woo scratched his chin and replied.
“No. Just ordinary ones. Miscellaneous things like improved stamina.”
Plenitas, who was watching Si-woo try to be evasive, narrowed her eyes and asked.
“How many Talents do you have?”
“Four.”
Plenitas said with an arrogant expression, as if she had won.
“Ah~ So you were a 4-star on the outside?”
“Yes, something like that.”
“Ahem, I’m a 6-star, so you’d better stay on my good side. I don’t know how this trial will proceed, but it seems the more Talents you have, the better.”
“Well, I’ll be in your care.”
At his half-hearted reply, which sounded as if he found her annoying, Plenitas pouted and said.
“Tch, that doesn’t sound like someone who’s asking for help.”
As the two were exchanging light conversation, a piercing scream echoed from the hallway outside the room.
*Kuaaaack!*
Startled by the scream, Plenitas flinched and grabbed Si-woo’s hand, but he coldly shook her off, tightened his grip on the club in his right hand, and cautiously opened the door.
The hallway was visible through the crack in the door.
There, a so-called lycanthrope—a wolf beastman—was tearing at a human’s neck with its long, beastly snout.
Red eyes filled with wildness instead of intelligence.
Teeth and tongue greedily craving human flesh and blood.
Witnessing the scene of carnage, Si-woo frowned.
‘A beastman? No. It’s different. That thing… its entire body is human, except for the head.’
A form that looked like a wolf's head had been forcibly attached to a human body.
At the bizarre sight, which looked as if the Creator had attempted to make a creature but left it unfinished, Si-woo quietly closed and securely locked the door.
He asked Plenitas.
“Do you have any combat-related Talents?”
“Huh? Uh, um… I have a Talent called Archery, but… other than that…”
“So it’s as good as nothing right now.”
Si-woo approached the collapsed bed, which was missing one leg, and pulled off the other wooden leg. He then tossed it to Plenitas and said.
“Hold onto this. You might need it.”
“Huh? What do you mean…”
“It’ll be here soon.”
He predicted that the wolf's sense of smell would have already located the two of them hiding in the room.
Sure enough, just as Si-woo had predicted, the center of the wooden door splintered with a *crack*, and a wolf’s snout burst through.
Seeing the wolf’s jaws snapping at the air, exuding a gamey stench, Plenitas let out a shrill scream and backed away.
Si-woo, on the other hand, calmly struck the wolf’s nose with the club in his hand.
*Thwack!*
With a whining groan, the wolf’s snout quickly retreated.
Soon after, with a loud crash, the entire door was smashed to pieces.
The wolf’s bloodshot eyes glared fiercely at Si-woo, the human who had struck its nose.
*Grrrroooowl!*
As the wolf lunged with a roar, Si-woo struck its face with the club again. But perhaps because it was a club made from a cheap bed leg?
The club broke.
“Plenitas!”
Si-woo shouted in a rough voice, but Plenitas, her legs already frozen in fear, could only stumble backward.
Perhaps because her superior demon body had been replaced by a frail human one overnight, her mind seemed to have become as weak as her flesh.
Gritting his teeth, Si-woo shoved the broken club into the jaws of the wolf as it tried to bite his neck, then struck its chin with an uppercut.
Thanks to his Combat Talent, it was a picture-perfect blow.
*Thud!*
It was a strike with all his might, but it wasn't enough to deliver a significant impact to the wolf's powerful jaw.
It only seemed to aggravate the creature's foul temper, as its now even more ferocious teeth grazed Si-woo’s arm, leaving a long, bloody gash.
As his eyes twitched from the searing pain, Si-woo’s gaze fell not on the wolf’s tough head, but on its fragile human body.
*Whoosh.*
Si-woo spun lightly, delivering a roundhouse kick loaded with centrifugal force to the wolf’s side.
Targeting the human body instead of the wolf's head proved effective. Seeing the creature whimper and tumble to the floor, Si-woo’s eyes gleamed as he kicked it in the groin.
A moment later, a horrific scream that any man could sympathize with echoed through the room.
As the monster foamed at the mouth and its eyes rolled back into its head, Si-woo brutally stomped on its neck.
*Craaack.*
With the sickening sound of breaking bone, the creature's body went limp. Si-woo panted heavily, his bloodshot eyes gleaming.
It had been a long time since he’d fought without his powerful physical abilities based on mineralisation and without mana, so the toll on his mind and body was considerable.
Plenitas, who had been watching like a frightened chick while Si-woo dealt with the creature, noticed something strange and spoke up.
“Huh? The body… it’s disappearing!”
After the beastman’s corpse vanished into smoke, a wolf’s fang the size of a human fist was left in its place.
As Si-woo examined the sharp, sturdy-looking wolf fang, a message window appeared before him.
[Chapter 0 Complete.]
[A map is provided as a chapter reward.]
The message window vanished, and feeling a heavy object in his pants pocket, Si-woo rummaged through it.
Confirming it was a map that briefly outlined the structure of the hospital building he was in, Si-woo curled his lips into a smile, pleased with the reward.
Plenitas timidly raised her hand and said.
“Um… I… I’m sorry I couldn’t help.”
“It’s fine. I mean, it would have been helpful if you’d at least thrown the club, but I wasn’t expecting anything from the start.”
Dejected by Si-woo’s somewhat cold reply, Plenitas lowered her head.
However, contrary to her shame-filled heart, her stomach was utterly shameless.
*Grrrrowl.*
At the loud noise erupting from Plenitas's stomach, Si-woo smacked his lips and scratched the back of his head.
“Are you hungry?”
“…Yes.”
“Can’t be helped. Follow me. According to the map, there's a cafeteria downstairs. We should be able to find something to eat there.”
Plenitas followed behind the leading Si-woo with a bright smile.