189. Cave of Trials
189. Cave of Trials
***
When her head was complicated, simply moving her body tended to clear her thoughts surprisingly well.
And for loosening up, Another World was pretty decent.
There was nothing quite like hunting monsters for moving without thinking.
In that sense, Serin sought out a somewhat more special dungeon.
*
————
—You have entered the Cave of Trials.
【Several system functions are restricted.】
- One-person dungeon.
- Party invites and acceptance are unavailable within this area.
- Requests for help are unavailable. Upon death, a 24-hour penalty is applied before re-entry to the area.
- Normal, area, world, and whisper chat are locked within the area.
- Logging out within the area is automatically treated as character death, applying a 24-hour entry ban and death penalty.
【Additional Benefits】
- An additional 20% drop rate benefit is applied for entering an appropriate-stats hunting ground.
————
*
The Cave of Trials.
It was also commonly called the "mechanics testing ground."
From the moment you step inside the dark cave, various gimmicks pop out at random.
Monsters can suddenly burst out with no warning whatsoever, and sometimes traps requiring instantaneous reactions appear.
After entering, the cave even transformed into vast grasslands, mountainous terrain, and even desert zones that were hard to believe were part of a cave.
The monsters that appeared, the traps, even the background environment—everything was random.
However, since the monsters and traps appeared "scaled to the appropriate level" based on the user who entered, "in theory" every situation could be handled.
Additionally, the Cave of Trials difficulty was divided into three tiers—Easy, Normal, and Hard—and the dungeon clear reward could only be obtained once a month in real time.
Because the dungeon changed form to match the level and equipment of the player who entered, you could feel a different kind of fun every time.
And with the once-a-month special nature of the reward on top of that, most Another World users tried to clear the Cave of Trials and claim the reward.
All of them on "Easy," the lowest difficulty.
Honestly, the unexpected variety of monsters, traps, and environmental zones—even just one of those was enough to be irritating and make the game feel unpleasant.
In an RPG, complexity and high variance were the biggest factors directly linked to death.
Since you had to clear the dungeon to get the reward, most users choosing Easy difficulty was perhaps the natural course.
Moreover, since even the rewards had random elements, there were many cases where a user who cleared "Hard" difficulty received worse rewards than a user who cleared "Easy."
And now.
Ding!
—Easy, Normal, Hard.
Please select a difficulty.
Serin looked at the hologram that appeared as soon as she entered the Cave of Trials and smiled faintly.
Without any hesitation, she selected "Hard" difficulty.
......
"Maybe I got lucky."
Having entered the Cave of Trials on Hard difficulty, Serin smiled as if pleased that the cave's appearance hadn't changed.
The background not changing meant there was one less thing to worry about.
At least a cave was better than a lava zone or a snowfield.
It was quite dark, but the cave was still faintly visible ahead, so it was manageable enough.
She had come to this dungeon to clear her head, which had gotten complicated from worrying about the scrim against Team Charlemagne, and it was especially good for emptying her mind.
The dungeon she had experienced in Black Ark was implemented almost identically in Another World, so Serin felt no particular unease.
Click.
Serin suddenly fiddled with her stream settings.
"Well, there are days like this, aren't there."
Turning on her stream earlier than the scheduled time was a first, but playing a dungeon that could only be cleared once a month without using it for her stream—that wouldn't be like a streamer.
—Stream ON.
3:01 PM.
And so Rin's stream turned on an hour earlier than usual.
***
The G1 pro team dormitory.
A break after the first scrim against another pro team had ended.
Since the break was from 3 PM to 7 PM, the players were each playing Another World or relaxing offline.
Ding!
Minha, who had come out of her capsule to organize her thoughts, checked her smartphone at the untimely alarm sound.
—Streamer Rin's broadcast has started!
"It's 3 o'clock right now?"
Thinking it might be a notification error, she tapped it, and the tweetie app immediately opened, taking her into a stream.
【Cave of Trials - Hard】
"Is she really streaming?"
It wasn't her usual streaming time, so it raised a question.
[What's this out-of-nowhere stream!?]
[Rin!]
[What's up today why'd you turn on the stream so early?]
[Straight into Another World lol]
[Rin's been weirdly diligent about gaming lately;]
[I like Rin's Just Chatting too though]
[Cave of Trials Hard? Why Hard?]
The chat was full of surprised reactions.
—I turned on the stream since I was entering the dungeon anyway. I did end the stream a bit early yesterday, so you can think of this as making up for it.
Rin's voice, calmly explaining in her characteristic gentle tone, was—she felt it again—really pleasant to listen to. Minha, who had been looking at her smartphone, sat down in her seat.
She booted up her PC, crossed her legs, and leaned back in her chair.
"If she streams early, I'm happy."
With Rin turning on her stream right during the break after the scrim, it was really nothing much, but she felt good for no reason.
—I'll wait about 5 minutes and then start the dungeon right away.
At Rin's voice again, Minha absently nodded and felt a question arise.
'For this kind of content, wouldn't you normally drag it out a bit more?'
She didn't watch other streamers so she wasn't sure, but she figured they'd gather more viewers before starting.
From the streams she'd seen so far, Rin waited 10 minutes at most. Other than that, she waited about 5 minutes like now and then quickly got on with the stream.
"Huh. Is that Rin on your screen?"
Minseong, who had been passing near Minha after the scrim ended, suddenly looked at the monitor and blinked.
"Yeah. Rin turned on her stream."
"It's already 4 o'clock!?"
When Minseong raised his voice as if it were absurd, Minha looked at him like he was an idiot, then spoke.
"No, it's 3. She turned on the stream early today."
At that, Minseong immediately pulled up a nearby chair and closed the distance, and Minha frowned and tried to push him away with her foot.
"Minseong, you've been kind of clingy lately."
"Minha, you're really not my type, okay? And let's just watch together. It's more fun to talk while watching the stream, right?"
When Minseong said why are you even bothered by this, Minha grumbled quietly, then turned her head toward the screen as if conceding.
Five minutes passed, and Serin on the screen moved her lips again.
—Ah. Well then, I'll start the Cave of Trials now.
"Looks like the stream just started?"
"Yeah. It just started."
As Rin on the screen naturally began walking through the dark cave,
BOOM!!!
She hadn't even taken a few steps before an explosion rang out.
A massive javelin fired out, bursting through one wall of the cave.
Clang!
Rin casually deflected it with her Crescent-Moon Weight and strolled on, and Minha found something about it funny.
Then she turned to Minseong beside her and asked.
"Minseong, do you feel something every time you watch Rin too?"
"Like what?"
When Minseong asked what she meant, Minha briefly chewed her lip, then spoke.
"Hmm. It's a bit much to call it competitiveness... but should I say just watching her is stimulating? Whatever Rin does in Another World, it feels worth watching."
"Ah. I think I know what you mean. Like it makes you want to play Another World for no reason, right?"
"That's part of it, but... it's a little different? Anyway, watching Rin play Another World feels helpful just from watching."
It was hard to clearly explain what she felt, but in Minha's eyes, Rin really had that distinctive quality in every single action and technique.
Just watching, you could feel her movements were different.
Slash-slash-slash-slash!
Suddenly, four dwarves appeared on screen, charging at Rin from all directions with their weapons. Rin abruptly planted her hands on the ground and spun her body once.
Swooosh!!
Immediately after, the blood-tinged Crescent-Moon Weight traced a circle, cleanly splitting the dwarves in half.
"Ah, right! Exactly this."
As Minha spoke while looking at the screen, Minseong absently nodded.
It wasn't a skill, just simple improvisation, but it was so clean.
"Rin definitely didn't use a skill or anything just now."
"Right? Just watching her movements somehow opens your eyes. Her movement is just really worth watching."
Walking through the cave like that, Rin soon came to a fork in the road.
A massive hologram choice decorated the screen.
*
————
Left.
Large numbers of demonic beasts: Item drop rate +40%, frequency of monsters appearing in groups increased.
Right.
Strong individuals: Item drop rate +60%, named monsters occasionally appear.
————
*
Left for safety. Right was danger, but Rin smiled faintly and moved her lips.
—Which path should we choose? Ah, viewers, please pick for me. You can automatically participate in the vote just by entering a number.
And with that, a vote window suddenly started.
Number 1 was large numbers of demonic beasts, and number 2 was named monsters.
The voting time limit was about one minute.
[22222]
[It's gotta be 2 lol]
[fr fr definitely named!]
[1111]
[We're choosing this by vote?]
[Rin's confidence is insane for real]
[I wanna see Rin slaughtering, go 1 gogogogo]
Minha, who had been watching the chat, suddenly typed on her keyboard.
—111.
Minha entered 1 several times and hit enter.
Minseong, who had been staring at Minha in disbelief, let out a hollow laugh.
"No, you're picking 1 from these choices?"
"Yeah, because I want to see Rin dance like a dancer."
A named monster would certainly be worth watching in its own way, but more than that, Minha wanted to see Rin flashily slaughter monsters.
Rin's movements while slaughtering monsters had a distinctive charm that made you watch as if spellbound.
"Anyway. I never expected you to become a Rin fan, Minha."
As the votes climbed in real time during the short time limit, Minseong casually spoke.
Minha turned her head with a sulky expression.
"Is that weird?"
"No, back on the first day of scrims, didn't you clearly dislike Rin?"
"No? I like Rin?"
When Minha said it like it was absurd, Minseong just blinked.
She'd clearly shown she disliked her on the first day, and now she was saying this shamelessly—he was speechless.
While the two were talking, the vote results came in.
—Strong individuals? Number 2 has more votes.
With that, Rin entered the right fork.