Solar Mage

Chapter 35: First Trial

We proceed through the corridor carefully, with Tin in the front and Rachel in the back.

They're cautious. Tin might not be the most talented, but he is loyal and trustworthy in battle. Though– suddenly using an axe after fighting with a shield for most of his years is quite the large difference, so he might not be that trustworthy in battle...

I put my sword back into the Sage System Inventory as we are about to enter the first room.

Doesn't seem like there'll be any more traps in this hall, so I won't need this. A lot of my pain has left my body. I had a few doubts that it might've just been due to Rachel's prayer miracle, but it seems that I really do have a regeneration ability!

Just after I return Dustin's sword to the inventory, and just before Tin enters the room, Rachel screams from behind.

"There, you did it again! I knew I wasn't seeing things!"

What is she talking about?

"What are you talking about?"

Tin says, his foot only a step away from the door and feet turned to us.

"He just made his sword vanish into thin air!"

Ohh I messed up.

"And this wasn't the first time he did it, didn't you see him pull out his sword from nothing and slice the axe off from the ceiling! Think about it, did you see him have a sword before you gave him your shield?!"

"Hmm... now that you mention it, you're right! He didn't have a sword on him when I gave him my shield!"

***

But why does it matter if he could do that or not?

***

"I knew it! So are you going to explain yourself Nameless?"

"Oh, well, it's because of this here-um– artifact!"

I take out Sage.

Technically, I'm not lying– it does have an inventory function in it.

"Two artifacts huh? That's quite suspicious; for a young E-Rank Adventurer like you to have not one, but two artifacts where'd you get them from?"

She looks away from me and walks around in circles, deep in her thoughts.

"Are you a noble? But to get two artifacts as a kid, even as a noble; that'd be impossible unless your father's heavily spoiled you. Then perhaps– are you-"

She turns back to me and I nervously gulp.

Damn, did she find out?

"Prince David?"

My body freezes and my facial expression cannot be seen. Then, I start shaking.

"I'm right, aren't I? It makes sense, I heard he recently reached the Knight rank and his whereabouts have been unknown for a while now. Not to mention, you look just like what the rumors say about you!"

Then, I burst out laughing.

"Hahahahahahahahahhahahaaah..."

Prince David? He turned 20 this year! Do I really look that old? Building onto that; how is her level of information so outdated? David graduated from Wolkan last year!

"I'm not the prince, or a noble. As for how I obtained the artifact, I attended Wolkan Royal Academy where I just so happened to win a small competition and received a prize from that. You know what a Spatial Storage is right? I got mine from winning another competition!"

She stares intensely at me.

"Didn't you just say it was an artifact?"

I keep on a fake and confident smile.

"Oh, thank you for catching that mistake, it was just a slip of the tongue haha...

Please just let it go, why does it even matter?

"Hmph, fine, I guess your explanation makes sense. If I find out you lied to me, and stole those artifacts, I would have needed to turn you into the church for breaking the commandments."

There's no way she would do that after everything we've done together, right?

"Alright, let's head to the room then."

Tin takes a deep breath in before lifting the Black Iron axe.

"Hup– Alright!"

There's no light in the room.

I summon five Dawns and scatter them across the room as Tin enters.

Hm? I ordered the Dawns to go to the edge of the room and stay there, so why is the room so dark?

I enter the dark room, being able to see nothing but the Dawns in the far corners of the room. As Rachel enters, the walls of the corridor begin to quickly close in from both sides. In a matter of seconds, the corridor and light are gone.

"Well, there's no other choice but to advance now."

I'm starting to think that instead of this being Zinc Zidden's legacy, this is more like a trial, as if the successor had to be worthy of inheriting his power in the possibly weak state that he could be in. I would summon more Dawns but with the current state of my body, it would just drain my body's mana too quickly.

Then,

"Clack"

A sound came from the entrance behind us, as magic lamps lit up. Then, more and more magic lamps start revealing the room, starting from the entrance, and making its way throughout the whole room.

Woah, wait– there's a monolith in the middle of the room with engravings on it!

I run towards the stone.

"Wait, nameless you need to be careful, there could be traps!"

I'm confident I will be able to detect traps before they activate on me.

I continue running before abruptly coming to a halt.

All of these stone bricks that form a giant square in front of me will activate a trap if I step on them. How can I tell? They are slightly lower than the other stones I've been stepping on running up to here. This trap that has space below it will eventually lower itself if enough time passes. These traps were extremely damaged by time.

I hop over the tiles and stand still after landing.

"Don't step on those tiles that I jumped over. Better yet, don't follow me past where you are now if you don't know which tiles I'm talking about."

I continue the rest of the way walking and eventually arrive at a point where I am able to see the engravings on the stone clearly.

Ugh– Syogol again?

I look back at Tin and Rachel.

Good, they seem to have listened to my warning and stayed still. They shouldn't be able to see what I'm doing.

I turn back and examine the engravings.

Hmm, this seems much shorter than the last one.

I take out Sage and whisper quietly to it.

"Translate this quickly. Don't respond, you're too loud."

It pauses for a moment.

"..."

Then it flies to the top of the monolith, scanning it, as it slowly traverses downward.

Why do I feel like I just hurt its feelings? It's just a magic engineered tool...

After a short moment, sage flies up and hovers in front of my face after scanning and projects the screen of the translated analysis without saying anything.

Did it actually understand what I said? No matter, let's read what the translated text says.

Hello again my successor. If you're reading this, that means you've passed three of my traps! Congratulations, I know I lied, but if you are truly my successor, you cannot just believe my words baselessly. If you did not make it this far, you were simply not worthy of being my successor.

What a ruthless way of thinking...

You probably don't trust my words already so I'll just tell you, there are more than three traps in total. The traps that I have told you about however, are true, I swear on my soul.

Hmm, maybe I should believe him, I do recall hearing that the Syo people emphasized the purity of their soul above everything else, even their life.

You may be wondering, "How do I get out of this room? There's no exit!" It's simple, this room will be your first real trial that will test your capabilities. The traps do not count as trials and there will be a trial from every room starting from this one. I will not give you any hints or information on the trial, you must do this alone. I wish you the best of luck, and may our Syo tribe prosper.

Damn it, this can't even be called a hidden dungeon room! He is just trying to kill us!

Suddenly, the floor starts to split apart, from the middle, as another well lit room becomes visible from under us. I stare in awe

Woah, even if I hate Zinc and everything he does, I have to admit, his magic engineering skills are greater than most magic engineers of this era!

"Nameless!"

I hear Rachel scream from across the room, on the other side of the splitting floor with Tin from me.

Crap.