- Are you sure? You will be teleported to the trial after confirming. -
Yes, I am sure.
The system teleported me away.
Eril saw my human body disappear, and he was very confused. "What just happened..? That relic turned into a human, and then it disappeared into thin air." I arrived in the trial room. The room appeared to be a treasury, with how full it was with gold and jewels. The gold and jewels shimmered in the light- but there was no light source. There were paintings on the wall, all framed in gold.
A voice started speaking, it sounded like the system, but it was different.
- This is the trial of sight. -
- You must find the enemy at the end and devour him. -
- Do that, and you shall be rewarded. -
Find the enemy at the end..? Is he strong? Maybe he is a fragment, I thought to myself, but I wasn't sure of course.
I was examining the room, to find a pathway.
I noticed a few peculiarities in the room. Like how there was light, but it didn't come from anywhere, and how there was no ceiling. The walls extended up for what seemed to be infinite. Treasures rained down like a waterfall from more rooms in the walls above.
I opened my character status system.
- Character Status -
- Title: Kin Eater -
- Kin Eater Description -
- With each time you devour your kin, you gain 2 of each stat, and 10 unallocated stat points. -
- Race: Fragment of ????????? -
- Subrace: Arch-Human -
- Class: Flesh Reaper -
- Stats -
- Agility: 15 -
- Vitality: 18 -
- Strength: 12 -
- Magic: 17 -
- Unallocated: 10 -
- Skills -
- Greater Regeneration -
- Level: 2 -
- Night Vision -
- Level: 1 -
- Climbing -
- Level: 1 -
- Pain Nullification -
- Level: 1 -
- Telepathy -
- Level: 1 -
- Description -
- Allows the user to speak to others using their mind. -
- Flight -
- Level: 1 -
- Description -
- Allows the user to fly using their mind. -
While I was looking at my stats, I hadn't noticed the treasures piling up around me, as if they were trying to drown me. I flew up to a higher room on the side of the wall, and went through the valuables in there, trying to find anything of use. This was a trial, so I expected there to be some purpose to it all. As I was going through the valuables, I felt something staring at me from behind, so I turned around. There was nothing there, just a wall.
I resumed my treasure searching and found a sword. Very fancy, it was made out of gold, and the handle had gemstones in it. It had a signature that read something in a language I couldn't understand.
I felt something staring at me from behind and so I threw the sword behind me. I heard a splat, and I looked down the walls, I saw a giant eye with wings and 4 legs falling down with a sword in its iris. The eye fell into the massive pile of treasures that were building up and exploded, staining the surrounding area with blood.
How odd, I couldn't see the eye when I looked behind me but when it died, I could see it just fine. This place doesn't seem dangerous so far, but it makes me very uncomfortable. I'll figure out how to pass this trial, and I'll get that Z rank Eye of God.
I continued flying through the vertical treasure labyrinth, knowing I was constantly being watched. I didn't know how many there were. I suddenly had an idea. If I looked at the golden trinkets, perhaps I would be able to see the creatures' reflections.
I landed in a room and confirmed this theory by looking into a golden watch. There were 2 things I noticed by looking at the watch. 1: The time was going backwards in this dimension, or at least the watch was portraying that. 2: I could see the eye monsters by looking at their reflection.
I continued flying up, and the higher I went, the worse the pain in my forehead. Don't I have the pain nullification skill? Why isn't it working? I thought.
Feeling that something was wrong, I checked the system.
- Character Status -
- Title: Kin Eater -
- Kin Eater Description -
- With each time you devour your kin, you gain 2 of each stat, and 10 unallocated stat points. -
- Race: Fragment of ????????? -
- Subrace: Arch-Human -
- Class: Flesh Reaper -
- Stats -
- Agility: 15 -
- Vitality: 18 -
- Strength: 12 -
- Magic: 17 -
- Unallocated: 10 -
- Skills -
- Greater Regeneration (Inactive during this trial) -
- Level: 2 -
- Night Vision -
- Level: 1 -
- Climbing -
- Level: 1 -
- Pain Nullification (Inactive during this trial)-
- Level: 1 -
- Telepathy -
- Level: 1 -
- Description -
- Allows the user to speak to others using their mind. -
- Flight -
- Level: 1 -
- Description -
- Allows the user to fly using their mind. -
Sure enough, the trial had limited a couple of my skills.
I went higher, and the pain in my forehead spiked, I grabbed my forehead in agony and then landed in a room. As I was holding my head, I felt something that should not have been there, an eye. In the middle of my forehead. I closed my eyes except for the one on my forehead.
Nothing happened for a moment.
Then I saw something only I was meant to see.
Before me was my maker.
"I am Tharazuun," he said.
"I was the one that grew. The system once guided me, making my growth nearly infinite. The gods feared what I would become and slew me. The reason you grow and evolve is because of the system. The other fragments have a system, but their systems are lesser than yours. Yours is the true system, but it can be upgraded. My soul is at the end of this trial, chained up. Ignore the enemy at the end and close your human eyes, let your new eye see the path for you. You must devour my soul to evolve the system. The gods know nothing about the system. And you must keep it that way," he said.
"I have so many questions," I said.
Tharazuun spoke one last time, "This is all the time I have. You will recover my memories after you find all 6 memory fragments. Goodbye."
Then he disappeared.
- You have 1 new secret quest. -
- Devour the 39th fragment of Tharazuun: His Soul -
- Reward: System + -
- You have discovered the secret path in the trial of sight. -
- Difficulty has been raised.
The world twisted. The gold around me melted, reality changed to fit what my eye saw. The melted gold boiled my legs, and I flew upwards, trying to escape it.
The melted gold spiraled upward towards me, grabbed my legs and pulled me into it.
Before I knew it, I was submerged in boiling gold. I was being boiled alive by the melted gold.
I shut my third eye. The gold hardened.
I was trapped.
I couldn't move.
The hardened gold kept me in place.
I opened my third eye, and the gold shattered.
I flew higher.
And higher.
And then I slammed against an invisible ceiling. My face was bloodied from the impact.
Then I saw it. The last room had no gold. It was a tunnel. I flew through quickly, and I reached the end of the tunnel. I was now in a massive room. Before me was a statue. It was half the size of the room. The statue started moving, and then I realized this was the enemy.
I opened my third eye and looked around for the secret place in the walls, the ceiling, the floor. I couldn't see it.
The enemy took a step closer to me, and it was already right in my face. It raised its foot, preparing for a stomp.
Then I noticed in the bottom of its foot was a small entrance, a little larger than me. I let the giant stomp down, and I positioned myself perfectly to be inside the hole.
I was now inside a moving room. Clinging to its interior walls, I felt the giant return to its original position, completely unaware of the invader lodged within. I stayed in the room. It was back, and now I was trapped inside of the room, blocked by the floor. Then, suddenly the floor opened up. I dropped into a new chamber—one barren of gold, too small to contain the statue I'd just escaped from.
But something more valuable than gold was hidden here.
It was chained up.
The forgotten 39th fragment of Tharazuun.
His soul.