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The 68th floor's trial. The challengers would split into two groups and each encounter a chamber with a Rank 13 Orichalcum Devil Statue, a Golem in the form of a Demon.
The two Orichalcum Golems had to be defeated within ten seconds of each other, in other words almost simultaneously. If the challengers failed to do this, the Orichalcum Golems would regenerate endlessly.
It was thought that this was a trial based on one of the powers that Solder was given by Peria, the goddess of water and knowledge. This ability was one that allowed her to unify and share her consciousness, knowledge and experiences with those of her companions. According to records in Vida's Resting Grounds, this ability not only allowed Solder to share her knowledge and experience to help with technological development, but also helped her command her allies in battle.
Of course, even without the same ability as Solder… if the challengers were able to defeat the Orichalcum Devil Statues in both rooms over and over, their timings would eventually line up and they would be able to pass through the trial.
"It's finally here, the Orichalcum Golem Battle! TIME TO RETURN THE FAVOOOOOR!" Borkus bellowed.
"OOOOOHN!" Knochen groaned.
"JYUOOOOH!" roared Bone Man.
The three of them had once fought a difficult battle against the Orichalcum Dragon Golem that had been guarding Vida's relic.
"I'm telling you, that's a different statue!" Eleanora reminded them as she joined them in the fierce assault on the Orichalcum Devil Statue.
The Orichalcum Devil Statue was considerably inferior to the Golem that had been created by the goddess Vida; its movements were slowed down as Knochen covered it with bones, and then Bone Man's blades and Borkus's and Eleanora's Demon-King-fragment magic swords cut it into pieces.
"Now," said Vandalieu's clone who was standing and watching from behind them, right before the Orichalcum Devil Statue's functions ceased completely.
"Please defeat it within ten seconds," said the real Vandalieu.
"Allow me to slow its movements," said Bellmond, restraining the Orichalcum Devil Statue's movements with threads made from the Demon King's fur.
"La-la-la~♪" sang Yamata, unleashing a sound wave attack.
"Magi… cal!" groaned Rapiéçage with a swing of her Death-Iron-covered fist.
"This is for back then!" roared Vigaro, unleashing a reckless attack with his newly-made Death Iron axe.
His axe returned to liquid form, split into four in an instant and each fragment was grasped by one of his hands.
"Death Burst Axe Blade!"
Vigaro activated a Death Lion Axe Technique martial skill and charged in.
"Uoooh…"
Unable to withstand the fierce attacks coming from every possible direction, the Orichalcum Devil Statue fell to pieces and stopped functioning.
"It won't regenerate, will it?" said Eleanora in the first room, sounding uncertain.
"UOOOOH! We won!" Vigaro roared triumphantly in the second.
The physical and spirit-form Vandalieu, one of whom was in each room, nodded.
"Now then, shall we gather the Orichalcum and proceed?" said the spirit-form Vandalieu.
"If I'm not mistaken, the corridor ahead of this room should join with the corridor from the other," said the physical Vandalieu.
His spirit-form clones constantly shared the same memories and consciousness as him. Thus, it hadn't been difficult to line up the timing.
The trial on the next floor, the 69th, was one that tested the challengers' mental strength. The entirety of its wall, floor and ceiling surface was covered in decorations that induced hallucinations of the mind and twisted the challengers' sense of direction. The challengers would hear a harsh, echoing noise that caused fear and irritation, and even the air was filled with a tormenting scent.
And the entire floor was built like a labyrinth, with mindless Golems blocking the challengers' path.
This was likely a trial based on one of the abilities given to Ark by Ricklent, the genie of time and magic. It was the ability that rendered her immune to any external effects on her mind, including those caused by illusions and poison.
Even without possessing the same ability as Ark, it was possible to clear this trial with mental resistance Skills and Magic Items.
"The labyrinth is troublesome. Shall we go in a straight line?" suggested Saria.
"The Golems are annoying. It smells, too," Rita complained. "Bocchan, can't you do something about it?"
"I can move the walls with my Labyrinth Creation Skill, but I don't know where this floor's exit is, so there's not much point. It seems that the exit won't appear until we proceed past a certain point," said Vandalieu. "As for the smell, the smell returns quickly even if I use Deodorization, so I thought that it's rather pointless."
As the Living-Armor-type Undead Saria and Rita had senses that were different from those of humans and Vandalieu had a different mental structure as well as the Grotesque Mind Skill, this was nothing more than a labyrinth with Golems in it.
The labyrinth wasn't particularly large, so they managed to reach the exit in less than an hour by proceeding through it while keeping their left hands on the wall.
The trial of the 70th floor was an arts-and-crafts trial.
When the party entered the room, an image was projected, presumably through light-attribute magic. The image depicted a person who appeared to be a craftsman using creation-related Skills to carve a statue, make a clay jar and repair a pot with a hole in it.
Challengers had to carry each of these tasks out in a separate room with the materials provided. Failure would result in them being forcibly teleported to the supply area, and they would have to face the false image trial all over again.
This was a trial based on the ability granted to the champion Hillwillow by Botin, mother of the earth and goddess of craftsmanship. This ability allowed Hillwillow to learn any creation-related Skill he saw within a single day.
This trial was another trial that could be cleared without the champion's ability; it just required several challengers with high-Level creation-related Skills.
"Well then, shall we go to the next floor?" said Vandalieu, who possessed multiple creation-related Skills that had fused with the Golem Creation Skill.
"That was less difficult than I imagined it would be," said Tarea, who normally waited in Sam's carriage but had been of great help on this floor.
The trial of the 71st floor was farming.
Challengers were required to take a large pot full of grain seeds, plant them and reap the harvest.
Among the seeds, there were some that were weaker and would produce less grain. Challengers would have to use their knowledge, intuition and life-attribute magic to determine which seeds these were and find a way to encourage their growth.
This was a trial based on the divine protection that the champion Zakkart received from Vida, the goddess of life and love. This divine protection granted Zakkart more acute senses and a greater affinity for the life attribute.
This was the simplest trial of the trials since the 68th floor. It could be cleared by an expert in life-attribute magic or a master of time-attribute magic… As this was a Dungeon to find the successor to Zakkart, it was only common sense to include a member who was an expert in life-attribute magic.
As for Vandalieu, he used Detect Life to pick out several seeds that had a relatively strong reaction, absorb them into his body and use Plant Binding Technique, a part of his Group Binding Technique Skill, to rapidly accelerate their growth.
"… This grain, is it an original strain of rice? Let's take it with us," said Vandalieu.
Deciding that the grains were precious reference materials and could be useful in selective breeding of the rice cultivated where the Scylla lived, he carried them with him inside his body as he moved on.
And now, the party was on the 72nd floor. This was the floor decorated with statues of those who seemed to be the fallen challengers from outside the Boundary Mountain Range.
The enormous, beautifully-polished stone gate bore an inscription reading: "Those who have chosen worthless heroes and prayed to worthless gods, as a reward for reaching this place, burn into your memory the fate of your predecessors."
As the inscription said, there was a countless number of stone statues around the gate. And the gate and walls were decorated with statues consisting only of torsos, heads or limbs, as if sculpted into the wall surfaces.
Every single statue had elaborate detail. If one examined the heads closely, they would see the earholes and the tongues and teeth inside the mouths. And above all, the faces twisted in fear and anguish made it difficult to believe that these were mere creative pieces.
It was as if the dead had been petrified at the moment that life slipped from their bodies.
"This is likely a stage created by Gufadgarn to break the wills of any mistaken followers of Alda who made it this far," said Luciliano, observing and drawing sketches of the statues that looked as if they would cause mental illness in those who looked at them for too long. "But what has caused them to turn into stone? A Petrifying Demon Eye should only work on living creatures; is it a curse or earth-attribute magic? Or could it be that these are simply stone statues made to look exactly like the corpses?" he murmured to himself, sketching the statue of a person whose abdomen had been ruptured, exposing their internal organs.
"It doesn't look like they scare you, Luciliano," said Pauvina, looking down at the back of Luciliano's head.
"Nobody's… scared," Rapiéçage groaned.
It wasn't just Luciliano that showed no fear at the sight of the statues of the corpses; almost everyone was unfazed. Being one of Vandalieu's companions made them accustomed to corpses; some of them were Undead themselves. They had long since stopped being shaken by the sight of the dead.
"Maybe I feel a little sorry for them. And the one with half his face crushed is a bit gross," said Privel with a pale face, not completely accustomed to corpses.
"… Whenever I see human and Elf corpses, they look like powerless civilians that have been slaughtered to me," said Gizania, who had grown up inside the Boundary Mountain Range, where humans, Elves and Dwarves were generally non-combatants.
"So, Danna-sama, what do you think?" Bellmond asked Vandalieu, who was trying to determine whether the statues really were petrified corpses.
It seemed that despite having let out a surprised scream when a crab's pincers caught her tail, Bellmond felt nothing when looking at these stone statues.
"I'm ninety percent sure that they're petrified corpses," Vandalieu replied, his arm turned into spirit form with Spirit Form Transformation and feeling around inside one of the statues. "It's not just the wounds; the internal structure of the unharmed parts of the bodies are elaborately preserved. The bones, the brain and even the blood vessels. It's possible that magic was used to elaborately recreate the bodies, but there's no reason to go that far to make fakes… even with my Golem Creation Skill, it would be an immense task to recreate the capillary vessels."
"That is indeed overthinking the details. Are there any other reasons why you are only ninety percent sure?" Bellmond asked.
"If these stone statues really are corpses, there should be spirits haunting this area, but there's not a single one," said Vandalieu.
Judging from the statues, these challengers had lost their lives in gruesome ways to the monsters and traps of the Dungeon. With that being the case, it was unnatural for there to be no spirits haunting this place, regardless of how poorly their memories and personalities from their past lives were preserved.
"Really? There's a whole swarm of them around you, kid." said Borkus.
"Like Borkus-san says, all of these spirits have been floating around near you since we entered the Trial of Zakkart," said Darcia.
"Borkus, Mom, those are the spirits that were with me since before we entered the Dungeon," said Vandalieu.
The Undead Borkus and Darcia, who was a spirit herself, could see spirits. But there was always a countless number of spirits around Vandalieu, so it seemed that they were unable to tell whether they were from the petrified corpses or not.
"Now that you mention it…" Borkus murmured as he thought back. "It's true that I haven't seen any spirits other than the ones around the kid."
"Really? I do remember seeing quite a few monster souls," said Saria.
"Nee-san, those are the spirits of the monsters we defeated," said Rita. "I haven't seen a single spirit after entering a new floor before fighting monsters."
"But Rita, isn't that normal for a Dungeon?" said Saria.
Even in Dungeons other than the Trial of Zakkart, each floor contained a large number of monsters. These monsters would begin killing each other if their numbers grew too large, but they often did not form strong feelings of hatred or a lingering attachment to life, so their souls quickly returned to the circle of transmigration. This was especially true for monsters created by Dungeons, as their minds were under the influence of their Dungeons.
Thus, it wasn't rare for challengers to not encounter a single spirit haunting a Dungeon unless there were other challengers up ahead or monsters had killed each other immediately before.
"Saria, so many challengers have died, so I don't think it would be strange for their spirits to be haunting this place," said Vandalieu.
The stone statues were countless in number, and as many of the dead challengers' corpses were not intact, there was no way to know exactly how many there were. But it looked like there were about a thousand of them.
Unlike monster spirits, it was easy for the spirits of people to form strong feelings of hatred and a lingering attachment to life, so there were cases where they haunted the world for hundreds of years without returning to the circle of transmigration. These were challengers who had lost their lives while they were trying to achieve their dreams, so their lingering attachment to life would certainly not be insignificant.
"But Vandalieu-sama, surely that does not apply for those whose heads are destroyed in a single blow and those who are taken by surprise and fatally wounded by a single attack?" said Isla.
"Ah, that's possible," said Vandalieu.
As Isla pointed out, those who died before they even knew would return to the circle of transmigration without forming feelings of hatred or a lingering attachment to life. Looking at the statues, it was clear that a significant number of them had died instantly.
"But the items in the supply area had such strong feelings of hatred left on them; it's hard to imagine that all of them died that way," said Vandalieu. "Well, it is possible that all of their feelings of hatred were left on the items they were wearing and then their spirits returned peacefully to the circle of transmigration."
"… I don't really like that," said Isla.
"If I could do an autopsy, I'd be able to tell whether they died instantly with a single blow or not, but that's hard when they're petrified," said Isis, one of Legion's personalities. "Even if that's the case, isn't it unnatural that there isn't a single spirit? I thought that this might just be a place where the corpses are kept rather than the place they died, but there's not even an insect spirit to be seen here."
"If that's the case, maybe Gufadgarn-san has gathered the spirits in another place or purified them because they'd get in the way of the trials if they became Undead. In any case, we can't do anything about them not being here," Darcia said in conclusion.
Indeed, there was nothing to be done.
"So, Bocchan, what will we do? Should we search for the statue of the Elf woman named Martina?" Sam asked, bringing the discussion back to the main topic.
The reason Vandalieu had been interested in the place where the challengers' corpses were kept was because he wanted to make use of the corpse of Martina, the female Elf spirit-user who had once been a member of the Five-colored Blades. And there were about a thousand stone statues that had once presumably been corpses here.
"… This is my personal opinion, but it seems unlikely that we will find her," said Zadiris. "There are many statues with no heads, after all."
As she said, there were many statues of corpses that could be either human or Elf with no way of telling due to the damage to their heads.
Elf women who became adventurers were relatively uncommon, and they were clearly distinguishable from Dwarves and Beast-people. They could even be distinguished from humans without a detailed autopsy, even if their bodies from the neck down were missing.
Human, Dwarf and Beast-person men were the most common adventurers in the stone statues here, in that order. It wouldn't be difficult to narrow the search down to less than twenty corpses.
"Yes, it seems difficult, so let's give up on finding her body here," said Vandalieu.
There would still be a problem after narrowing the search down to less than twenty corpses. There were almost no other criteria to narrow down their search.
"If I recall, Your-Majesty-kun, you've heard her voice but not seen her face, right?" said Zandia.
Indeed, Vandalieu had heard the female voice that he presumed to be Martina's through an Undead insect once, but he had never seen her face!
"That's right," said Vandalieu. "I have heard descriptions of her appearance, but… they were things like 'hair like flowing gold,' 'blue eyes like gemstones,' 'skin like porcelain,' 'slender limbs' and 'voluptuous body.'"
"Descriptions, especially ones written by royals and nobles, are pretty useless. She'd be pretty scary if she really did have slender limbs and a voluptuous body," said Zandia.
Indeed, such descriptions were of no use as a reference. The only useful detail in the descriptions was the color of her hair and eyes.
"And even the color of her hair and eyes isn't of any use. They're all stone-colored now," Basdia sighed.
"It's impossible to tell them apart by their personal belongings, too. The Guild cards hanging from their necks have been petrified as well and are stuck to their skin," said Orbia in disappointment as she looked at a petrified, almost half-naked Elf woman.
… It was clear from the supply area above that contained the equipment of the dead adventurers; the stone statues had had all of their equipment, accessories and belongings stripped from them.
The statues weren't completely naked; the light clothing and underwear beneath their armor remained.
Perhaps even Gufadgarn had disliked the idea of stripping them naked, or perhaps he had hesitated to put the challengers' undergarments, which were not Magic Items, on display in the supply area. The possibility that he had found it too bothersome couldn't be denied, either.
But unless Martina had her name embroidered on her underwear, it was probably impossible to tell her apart from the others.
Everyone turned their gaze towards Luciliano, who had once worked as an adventurer in the Mirg shield-nation, but he frowned and shook his head. He had apparently never seen Martina in person, either.
"Well then, I suppose I'll try one final test," said Vandalieu.
He extended a hand towards one of the statues at random and tried to use Dark King Magic to undo the petrification and return the statue to its original corpse form. The part his hand was touching gradually turned from cold, hard stone into what was still cold, but undeniably soft flesh.
His companions' eyes grew wide and they let out noises of surprise, but after a certain point, the reversal of the petrification stopped and the flesh turned back into stone once more.
"Muh, it seems that the curse petrifying them is applying its effect constantly. There's no guarantee that the curse will be undone even if I turn the whole corpse back to its original form, so let's give up on this," said Vandalieu.
"I see. Should we load some of them into my carriage?" Sam suggested.
Even if there were a few dozen candidate corpses, it was possible to carry them in Sam's carriage.
"Let's not do that," said Vandalieu. "They're heavy, bulky and it's a pain. Let's take them with us on the way back if we can."
It would take a considerable amount of time, so he decided against it, opened the door and proceeded onwards.
And on this floor, there was a trial of having to fight against Phobia Demons, who were constantly shrouded in an aura of fear, inside thick fog, but… the Phobia Demons were annihilated by Vandalieu and his companions in no time.
The aura of fear had almost no effect on Vandalieu, whose mental structure was unlike those of ordinary people, and his Undead. In fact, the Aura of Fear Skill being active just made them easier targets by making the Demons' presence clearer in the fog, equivalent to shouting, "I'm over here!"
Heinz and the other members of the Five-colored Blades were waiting for the Trial of Zakkart in one of the Devils' Nests in the Farzon Duchy.
They had already finished their preparations.
Their Item Box that allowed almost unlimited storage of items contained food, daily necessities, spare equipment, Potions and magic crystals, as well as cold-weather gear and Magic Items that would be effective against the Dungeons' harsh environments.
They had about a year's supply of food and water; they weren't worried about struggling in that regard like the last time they entered the Dungeon.
Of course, they had been improving their skills in order to be able to clear the Trial of Zakkart, and they had been gathering knowledge and wisdom so that they would be able to make it deeper into the Dungeon than they had last time.
At the time, Heinz's party had consisted of four members and been reduced to three with the loss of Martina, but it had gained new reliable members, and now there were five members in total. They even had the power to seal Demon King fragments that had gone rampant.
If they were to fight the Pure-breed Vampire Ternecia all over again, they would likely be able to defeat her. They were certain of that.
As for their wisdom and knowledge, they had used the Mages' Guild, the Church of Alda and the archives of the Orbaume Kingdom to learn about not only Bellwood and the other heroes who defeated the Demon King, but Solder, Ark, Hillwillow and Zakkart as well.
They had learned surprising truths, such as the fact that Farmaun Gold had founded the Adventurers' Guild and spread the methods of utilizing monster materials, but the discovery of these methods was largely the achievement of Ark and the other creation-oriented champions.
However, among the legends regarding the 'fallen champion' Zakkart, there were almost none that described his achievements. Heinz and his companions still believed that the purpose of the Trial of Zakkart was to defeat Zakkart and become Bellwood's successor; they simply wanted to know more about the foe they were to face.
"Everything's ready… or it's supposed to be, but who knows," Heinz sighed, standing beneath a hot summer sun.
He looked at the Magic Item in his hand, the Trial Seeker that detected the next place where the Trial of Zakkart would appear.
As usual, it was pointing to the surface of the valley.
It hadn't changed for about two months, since the beginning of summer.
"Well, we have no choice but to wait, don't we?" said the martial artist Jennifer's voice from behind Heinz. "And we have to be careful to not get rusty. You're not going to tell me that you've gotten tired of waiting and want to quit, are you?"
"Of course not," said Heinz, turning around to see Jennifer's face and the party's improvised campsite behind her. "You'd probably punch me if I said I wanted to quit after dragging you around this far."
"I won't punch you, but I'll give you a good kick," said Jennifer. "It's not like that Trial Seeker is broken, right?"
"Yeah, I've checked it multiple times over the last few months. It's functioning correctly," said Heinz.
"Then we just have to wait until the Trial of Zakkart appears, just like we have done until now," said the Elf priestess Diana as she joined the conversation, drying her wet hair. "Summer baths are quite pleasant. Perhaps you should wash off your sweat, Heinz? Delizah and Selen are using the bath at the moment, however, so you would have to wait until they are finished."
"… You even built a bath," Heinz murmured. "If we're here for another month, you'll probably cultivate the Devil's Nest and begin some real construction work."
At first, the campsite had been a small one, just enough for Heinz and his companions to stay while waiting for the Trial of Zakkart to appear.
But during their two-month wait, people had come to stay in the campsite to support Heinz's party and travelling merchants started coming to keep their connections with them because they were honorary nobles, causing the campsite to gradually expand.
It was already bigger than a small village, even though this was a dangerous Devil's Nest where monsters roamed.
"That might be a good idea. It's not a big Devil's Nest, and there aren't any Dungeons," said Jennifer.
"And the monster numbers have been reduced quite a lot because of you and the the others hunting them to pass the time," said Diana.
As they were doing nothing but waiting, Heinz and his companions had an abundance of spare time and had returned to the city multiple times, but being away from the Dungeon for long periods of time made them anxious, and they were hesitant to take other requests and go into other Dungeons in this state.
Thus, they had been hunting the monsters of this Devil's Nest to pass the time. The monsters in this Devil's Nest were Rank 5 at most and had no chance of defeating Heinz and his companions, so their number had decreased drastically in no time.
Thus, this temporary campsite was peaceful despite being inside a Devil's Nest. Even so, unintelligent monsters like Goblins would come attacking once every few days, but these were exterminated by Heinz's supporters and the criminal slaves that had once been radical followers of Alda.
"Duke Farzon may already be forming a plan for cultivating this place. It is possible that he is already in the preparation phase," said Diana.
"Once we come out of the Trial of Zakkart, this place might be a fully-built village instead of a Devil's Nest," said Heinz.
"Heinz, about that…" Jennifer began.
"I don't need you to tell me… I don't know where the Trial of Zakkart is right now, but there is someone else facing it. And they're at least as skilled as we were when we survived inside the Dungeon for over a month, or even better," Heinz muttered.
The Trial of Zakkart Teleported to a new location approximately a month after its appearance if no challengers were inside it.
In other words, it would stay in the same place for as long as there was a single challenger inside it.
The next location for the Trial of Zakkart to Teleport to would be the surface of this valley, but the fact that it had not done so for over two months meant that someone was facing it right now.
"To think that there are others who are as reckless as us. Even though I heard that there are almost no other challengers after you and the others warned everyone about it," said Jennifer.
"I wonder who it is. If they are adventurers who are B-class or higher, they would have started some rumors," said Diana.
"Diana, B-class isn't enough. They've been in there for over a month, so they have to be A-class or above," Jennifer pointed out. "Isn't that right, Heinz?"
"… I think so. And it's over a month, at the very least," said Heinz.
The challengers could have survived inside the Trial of Zakkart… clearing it, for over two months, perhaps almost three months.
If they had survived for that long, perhaps they had reached the 42nd floor, the snowy mountain on which Heinz's own party had turned back. Complicated emotions ran through Heinz's mind as this thought occurred to him.
"… I want us to be the ones to clear the Trial of Zakkart. But I don't want to wish for the failure… the deaths of the ones who are facing it now," he said.
The Trial of Zakkart appearing before Heinz and his companions would mean that the ones who were facing it now were no longer inside it. There was a high chance that this would mean the challengers had died.
"Don't worry about it; those guys would have been prepared for that. And you guys made it back alive, so it doesn't mean that they'll definitely die, right?" said Jennifer.
"That's true, but… yeah. Let's pray to Alda that they make it back alive," said Heinz.
"Yes. I am sure that Alda desires that as well," said Diana.
The three of them offered a short prayer for the safe return of the challengers that were out there somewhere, but… they would never have suspected that neither Alda nor Vandalieu's party would be happy about this prayer.
In fact, they would never have imagined that Vandalieu and his companions had already passed the ice field floor that was below the snowy mountain one, and had reached the lower floors.
Heinz and his companions continued waiting for the Trial of Zakkart that could appear at any moment.
.
.
.
.
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.
.
A floor of a slightly foggy land, not as cold as the ice field and snowy mountain middle floors, but still cold enough to keep ice from melting.
This was the 80th floor, and as Vandalieu and his companions entered it, they saw several dozen ice pillars around the entrance.
"Bocchan, I believe these are the ice statues," said Sam, pointing at one of the pillars.
Upon looking more closely at the pillar, it was not a pillar but rather a person encased in ice.
According to the challengers from inside the Boundary Mountain Range, the challengers from outside the Boundary Mountain Range who fell in this Dungeon met one of two fates – becoming either a stone statue or an ice one. The ones frozen inside these pillars of ice were likely the ice statues.
"Yes. If I recall, those who saw these statues thought that they were in poor taste, like some kind of warning about the trials from Gufadgarn, or some kind of hint," said Vandalieu, approaching one of the ice statues to examine the person inside through the transparent ice.
Like the stone statues, the person was wearing almost nothing that could be called equipment; they were in no more than their underwear.
But unlike the stone statues, the color of their hair, eyes and skin could be seen.
"But it doesn't seem like they froze to death here," said Rita.
"This one has traces of burns, and that one looks uninjured at first glance but is missing his head," said Saria.
As they pointed out, if one examined the ice-covered corpses closely, they would see that they had fatal injuries that one could not imagine they received on this floor.
Some of them had had their entire bodies cut to pieces and then seemingly reassembled like a jigsaw puzzle before being frozen in the ice.
This was something that had taken a lot of effort. It seemed that the theory that this was some kind of warning or hint regarding the trials was not incorrect.
"According to the records, this floor's trial is commonly known as the 'trial of temptation,' isn't it?" said Vandalieu.
It was a trial where once the challengers proceeded a certain distance, their vision would be covered by the fog and they would hear auditory hallucinations from behind them. The voices of close friends who were supposed to be outside the Dungeon or family members that were supposed to be dead would say things along the lines of "That way is dangerous" and "Come back."
"And only two groups of challengers have ever faced this trial. But nobody has ever passed it," said Iris.
This was where the document containing the collective knowledge from Godwin and the other challengers ended. People had faced the Dungeon every year for a century, but this was as far as anyone had ever been.
"Do the records say what state they were defeated in?" asked Eleanora.
"Both groups apparently proceeded forward so that they wouldn't fall to the temptations, but… it seems that they got caught by pitfalls, separated in the fog and taken by surprise by monsters," said Iris.
"I see, so you can't clear the trial just by resisting the temptations," said Isla.
Eleanora and Isla frowned as they realized how vicious this challenge was.
"Even for Vandalieu-sama, it has taken over two months to reach this floor. It would not be strange… no, it would be normal for other challengers to take over three months to reach this point. They would have had a considerable amount of accumulated physical and mental fatigue," said Eleanora. "Being in that state, if they heard the tempting voices of those close to them… even if they knew they were auditory hallucinations, shaking them off wouldn't be easy."
"And even if they did, there were hidden traps and enemies in the fog… The only one who could clear this trial with no prior information would be Vandalieu-sama, who possesses the Danger Sense: Death spell," said Isla.
"If it was darkness, we'd be able to see through it with Dark Vision, but… Fog and smoke is a bit more difficult," said Eleanora.
As Eleanora was an Abyssal Vampire and Isla was an Undead, darkness was no hindrance to them. But they couldn't see through fog and smoke, as they were physical substances in the air.
"Gufadgarn might have expected Vampires to face the trial… What is it, Iris? You have been looking back and forth between me and the little girl for some time now," said Isla.
"Oh no, I was just thinking that you two are very in-sync, which puts me at ease," said Iris, seeming to admire them.
Isla and Eleanora blinked… and then silently turned to face each other.
Bellmond looked at them, then pulled out a small hourglass from the luggage. "Now then… Fight!" she declared with her arms crossed.
Still silent, Isla and Eleanora began grappling with one another.
"Wha–?! What are they doing?!" Iris shouted, shocked.
"Physical communication in order to maintain smooth relations," Bellmond replied coolly. "Iris, you will become caught up in it if you do not step back."
"Shouldn't we stop them?!"
"It is not a problem. They are not using weapons, martial skills or magic, and the match will end once all of the sand in this hourglass has fallen… If they do not stop then, I will force them to."
"Iris, I… some warriors cannot form bonds without competing with one another," said George.
Since rules seemed to be in place, Iris accepted her father's words.
"Alright," she said, reluctantly stepping back. But she kept glancing at Eleanora and Isla as they continued their match.
"You little girl," Isla grunted.
"You old lady," said Eleanora.
With their hands interlocked, the two of them continued their contest of strength, emitting enough murderous intent to make even a seasoned knight faint in fear.
Even though Iris knew that they wouldn't start an actual fight to the death, she couldn't help but feel anxious about it.
Meanwhile, Vandalieu and the others were nonchalantly examining the ice statues, seeming to take no notice of the murderous intent being released nearby.
"So, Bocchan, what will we do with these ice statues?" asked Sam.
"They're fewer in number than the stone statues above, but in the end, we still don't know which of the corpses is Heinz's companion," said Vandalieu.
"Hmm, could it be this person? I feel like I've seen her before… Ah, but I get the feeling that it's this one, too… if I recall, she was an Elf woman, and she was blonde…" Darcia murmured, remembering that she had once seen Martina's face before she was captured and killed.
She peered at the faces through the ice and searched her memories, but it didn't seem to be going well.
"… Vandalieu, what color were her eyes, again?" she asked, sounding depressed.
"Mom, you don't have to force yourself to try to remember. If you can't remember, it can't be helped, and you probably only saw Martina once. And it's not like you examined her in detail from up close," said Vandalieu, comforting her.
Indeed, Martina was a spiritual mage in the Five-colored Blades, so she would have taken a position at the back of the party rather than the front, so even when they captured Darcia, she would have been behind Heinz and Delizah.
And after her capture, Darcia had been tortured and burned at the stake by High Priest Gordan. That was about ten years ago. The ones she remembered were High Priest Gordan, the one who conducted the torture and execution, and the front members of the Five-colored Blades.
It wasn't surprising that she couldn't remember Martina's face.
And even Martina's death in the Trial of Zakkart had happened several years after Darcia's. As an adult Elf woman, her appearance wouldn't have changed over the course of a few years, but it was possible that her hairstyle had changed.
"Yes, it's impossible after all. I might be able to remember if she was wearing the same equipment as she was when they captured me," said Darcia.
The corpses frozen in the ice were stripped of all their equipment and were in their underwear; it seemed that this made it even more difficult to make connections with Darcia's hazy memories.
"But Darcia-sama, there are some ice statues with their Guild Cards visible," said Saria.
Indeed, unlike the stone statues, the ice statues' Guild Cards could be seen, though only one side was visible. Guild Cards were Magic Items that could display their owners' Statuses on the back at their will, but there was information written on the front – their names and class at their Guilds.
"I saw that, but it doesn't seem like there are any with the name 'Martina' written on them," said Darcia.
"Indeed, and there are some who don't have Guild Cards," said Saria. "There are also some with Guild Cards that are broken or buried inside their bodies."
"It seems that they unfortunately got stuck between the severed sections of their bodies," said Vandalieu.
"If only they were buried in between their breasts," said Rita.
"But among the ice statues that we can see the Guild Cards of, the lowest we can see are C-class, and most of them are B and A-class," said Vandalieu, paying no attention to Rita.
Vandalieu had already used a clone to check all of the ice statues and learned that most of the ones he could check were high-class.
It was likely that those whose Guild Cards couldn't be checked were also high-class adventurers or knights and mercenaries with equivalent abilities.
"Judging from the difference in the number of statues, the stone statues above are the weak challengers who quickly died on the upper floors. The ice statues might be the corpses of the stronger ones who made it past a certain point," said Rita.
"I don't know why they're divided like that when they haven't even been turned into Undead," said Saria.
"Either Gufadgarn showed some respect for the dead, or there's no real meaning behind it," said Vandalieu.
"And in the end, there are still no spirits," said Darcia.
They considered various things, but the important thing was still that there was not a single spirit around. Because of this, they could not confirm the identity of Martina, the spiritual mage Elf woman who had been one of Heinz's companions.
There were five Elf women among the ice statues.
Eleanora and Isla, who had finished their showdown as all of the sand in the hourglass had fallen, joined in the discussion as if nothing had happened.
"There should be much fewer Elves than humans, but… there are quite a lot of them," said Eleanora.
"Elves have better magical qualities than humans, and they have long lifespans so they can accumulate more knowledge," said Isla. "About a thousand years ago, I heard that this is why the portions of humans and Elves among high-class adventurers are not that different."
Watching them from behind, Iris got the impression that the two of them actually got along quite well, but decided to keep quiet about it next time. She had the feeling that it would spark another fight.
"Danna-sama, what shall we do? Five corpses should not be too heavy to carry, and it is likely that we can narrow them down even further if we examine them in detail," Bellmond suggested, looking at the hands and figures of the ice statues.
"… Let's not do that. It would be a bother to try and make sure that the ice statues aren't damaged in the trials ahead," said Vandalieu.
Before entering the Trial of Zakkart, he had been thinking of taking the corpse with them if they found it, but now that he was in the Dungeon, he realized that it was a more difficult Dungeon than he had originally anticipated.
And after this floor was unknown territory, with no previous information available. It would probably be best to not take any unnecessary baggage.
It was possible that they would be given the corpse on their way home if they asked Gufadgarn, too.
"Companion…" groaned Rapiéçage.
"Patchwork…?" said Yamata.
Having anticipated the addition of a new patchwork companion, the two of them looked dejected.
"I'll make more companions when the trial is over, okay?" said Vandalieu, deciding to move forward without giving in. "Let's proceed with me leading, and only the Undead and those with Mental Corruption left outside," he said, gathering his thoughts.
The party would proceed with only those that would be resistant to auditory hallucinations. And as Vandalieu took several steps past the ice statues, a fog enveloped the whole party, obstructing their vision.
Vandalieu let out a scream. "From the echoes of my Scream Skill, I have a rough idea of where the enemies are. Hmm… Bellmond, use a cutting thread in the direction I'm pointing."
"Understood."
Like a bat hunting insects in the darkness, Vandalieu located the hidden enemies from a distance and Bellmond disposed of them with her threads as they proceeded.
Every time her slender fingers danced in the air, a short scream came from beyond the fog, followed by the sound of multiple wet objects hitting the floor.
"As expected of a Kunoichi. I'll make a hachigane*, shurikens and fishnet tights," said Vandalieu.
TLN*: A hachigane is the protective headband that ninjas (such as the characters in Naruto) wear.
"Danna-sama… It is true that I have acquired the Kunoichi Job, but I believe I would have no opportunity to wear fishnet tights even if you did give them to me," said Bellmond, who was always wearing a tailcoat that didn't reveal her legs.
Why fishnet tights? The Empusa Kunoichi of Zanalpadna wore them, so perhaps it was a form of fashion. Then should I wear them under my clothes? Bellmond wondered as she manipulated her threads and removed the party's obstacles.
"If it's just us, we might be able to get through this easily if we're just careful of the traps," Isla murmured.
"Isla, turn around and perform a dash," said Vandalieu's voice.
"Yes – hagh?!"
"Isla, that was an auditory hallucination," said the real Vandalieu, having pulled on Isla's chain to stop her as she tried to obey the auditory hallucination's order.
"Fuh, I'm a failure as a servant, not even being able to tell whether Vandalieu-sama's voice is the real one or not," said Isla.
"Eleanora, please come here," said another auditory hallucination of Vandalieu's voice.
"Yes, Vandalieu-sama!"
"… I was thinking it would turn out like this," Vandalieu muttered, wrapping his extended tongue around Eleanora's arm to stop her.
It seemed that a resistance to effects on the mind was ineffective. And it seemed that this floor's trial was even imposed upon the Undead.
"Vandalieu, hurry and come back. This way," said Darcia's voice.
"That's right, Van. That way is dangerous," said Pauvina's.
"No, Vandalieu! That's not my voice!" the real Darcia cried. "And Pauvina-chan should be in Sam's carriage right now!"
"I can hear Mom's voice in stereo sound," Vandalieu murmured. "There's one, two pitfalls there and one bear trap there."
It seemed that this floor's auditory hallucinations were not an effect on the mental state to make challengers hear the voices of those close to them directly inside their heads; they were identical, physical recreations of the voices that could be heard through the ears. Thus, Mental Corruption and Grotesque Mind had no effect.
But it seemed that Legion was the only one who could distinguish the auditory hallucinations from real voices.
"Really? They sound completely different to me."
"HAHAHAHA! Our loyalty and belief prevail!"
"Valkyrie, isn't it simply that we don't have ears?"
"I wonder how we even perceive sound."
Indeed, it was likely because they didn't have any organs equivalent to ears.
But as Vandalieu was at the front, avoiding the traps and clearing the enemies pre-emptively, there were no obstacles stopping him and his companions from proceeding onwards.
But as he continued on, no matter how many times he examined the Dungeon's structure with the Labyrinth Creation Skill, there was no exit leading downwards.
There are no stairs leading down? he thought.
Would they not appear until the party had proceeded a certain distance?
That was possible, but Vandalieu suddenly stopped walking as he realized that the pitfalls that he had already passed were vanishing.
"… Our vision is obscured and there are only endless traps and enemies ahead of us. The auditory hallucinations tell us 'Come here' and 'That way is dangerous.' In other words, we have to go backwards, and the area ahead is dangerous," said Vandalieu. "Everyone, turn around. The auditory hallucinations are right."
With those words, Vandalieu turned around on the spot. Bellmond and the others were all surprised by this sudden action, but they did not disobey their master, who appeared to be very certain of himself.
But although Vandalieu remained cautious as they headed back towards the entrance, there were no more traps and enemies. The fog cleared up, and past the ice statues, there was a staircase leading downwards that hadn't been there when the party arrived on this floor.
"What in the world is this?" Bellmond murmured in bewilderment.
"I'd forgotten until now, but… Zakkart once said, 'Let's take the time to obediently listen to the warnings of others.' It's probably to do with that," Vandalieu replied.
The ice statues on this floor… their backs were facing the entrance, a warning that proceeding forward would lead to failure. And the auditory hallucinations were true warnings.
"W-what a contradictory trial…" Bellmond said, her face stiff.
Proceeding forwards and then obeying voices that were clearly auditory hallucinations that told them to turn back in a Dungeon known as a 'trial.'
This wouldn't be an easy decision for anyone to make.
"I agree. What poor taste… well, not that it really matters," said Eleanora.
"I'll overlook it this time," said Isla.
The two of them looked somewhat happy as they touched the chains on their wrists.
"Well, it is a Dungeon that imposes trials on its challengers, so we have to accept that there are going to be some trials that are in poor taste. It doesn't make much sense to complain about it," said Vandalieu as he walked towards the stairs leading to the next floor.
"The Level of the Scream Skill has increased!"
The 95th floor of the Trial of Zakkart made Vandalieu want to retract the words that he'd spoken on the 80th floor.
This floor's trial created illusions of scenes that they feared the greatest.
"Van, are you alright?" asked Pauvina.
She and the others who hadn't faced the false image trial didn't see any illusions. It was likely that the illusions of this trial were created based on the personalities and memories of the challengers copied when the false images were created.
"Van, is there something there? I mean, are you looking at something?" asked Legion.
They had taken the trial, but they didn't see any illusion either. It seemed that the trial was unable to decide what they would fear the most, as they were made of multiple souls fused together.
"… Give me a moment," said Vandalieu, the only one who could see an illusion.
He was watching his citizens, friends and companions falling to the ground, enveloped in flames. He could see Heinz and believers of Alda, apparently the ones who had caused this, laughing.
They were smiling, looking refreshed or relieved.
"With this, justice has been done. The world is saved," they said.
Vandalieu knew that this was an illusion. Due to the effects of Grotesque Mind, the illusions were faint, and there was static in the voices of Heinz and the others, telling Vandalieu that this wasn't reality.
Other people might have felt the heat of the flames or smelled the scent of blood, but that didn't happen for Vandalieu.
It was clearly fake. If this was a trial intended for challengers to see through the illusions and overcome their fears, Vandalieu would happily clear it. It was truly simple.
But Vandalieu was extremely dissatisfied with this!
"… Death Cannon."
Vandalieu unleashed the Dark King Magic spell, Death Cannon, a condensed form of Death Bullets, at Heinz's illusion. Even an S-class adventurer would have his Vitality helplessly stripped from him by this attack if it hit directly, but as this was an illusion, there was no effect.
The illusion of Heinz continued to laugh.
"Vandalieu-sama?! Calm yourself!" cried Eleanora.
"Eleanora, I am very calm. No, I am confused. If you think about it, the fact that I'm firing Death Cannon at a lifeless illusion is proof that I'm not calm, isn't it?" said Vandalieu.
Calm down, he told himself. What do I need to do to erase an illusion? … I suppose I'll need a physical attack. The heat and explosion of Flame Prison Death might have an effect, but it would be dangerous if the blast reached all the way here. So then, it has to be Dead Spirit Magic.
Vandalieu unleashed Bone Flame Jailing Destruction Bullet, a black, skull-shaped fireball, but Princess Levia went straight through the illusion. A dying scream echoed out, and after a while, she returned with a perplexed expression on her face.
"Your Majesty, I don't know what I'm supposed to be burning. Was I right to hit that Demon over there?" she asked.
"I'm sorry, I forgot that this illusion is only visible to me," said Vandalieu, realizing that he still hadn't recovered his composure.
But he noticed that Bone Flame Jailing Destruction Bullet did touch the illusion; it hadn't missed completely.
But the illusion had merely wavered a little. He needed a more effective method of attack.
So, do I have to use the Demon King's fragments? he thought.
With this idea, he threw the Demon King's horns and carapace at the illusion. He produced a cannon barrel with the Demon King's blood and unleashed a ray of light that combined Artillery Technique, the Demon King's eyeballs and the Demon King's luminescent organs.
But all of them pierced straight through the illusion, and although the dying screams of what were apparently monsters in the distance echoed out from beyond, the illusion was still just flickering a little.
"Oi, everyone, fall back!" shouted Borkus. "The kid's lost his cool!"
"We cannot stop him while he is in this state, after all," said Sam.
"Vandalieu, don't go overboard, okay?" said Darcia.
Everyone took some distance from Vandalieu as he was releasing attacks at an illusion that none of them could see. Meanwhile, Vandalieu stopped attacking once more and fell into thought.
It's not like physical attack power has no effect, but maybe it's really no good without magic? But the only other thing left is the no-attribute spell 'Mana Bullet'… No, it could work.
Death Cannon was a spell that Vandalieu cast by condensing Death Bullets, which were the death-attribute version of Mana Bullets. Thus, it should be possible for him to condense Mana Bullets as well in order to improve the effective range and power of the spell.
"Out-of-body Experience, Transcend Limits…" Vandalieu murmured.
His spirit-form produced multiple heads and then divided even further. Vandalieu activated Parallel Thought Processing, High-speed Thought Processing and even the Transcend Limits Skill.
Vandalieu converged as much of it as he could at the tip of his finger, but as no-attribute Mana quickly dispersed, it didn't go very well. It kept dispersing with a bursting noise.
Heinz and the other followers of Alda continued to laugh inside Vandalieu's illusion. Even though Vandalieu's beloved citizens of Talosheim were lying on the ground, they didn't even look back at them.
"Even if this is an illusion, I can't leave them like this," Vandalieu said.
"The Level of the No-Attribute Magic Skill has increased!"
"No-Attribute Magic has awakened into the Hollow King Magic Skill, and Grotesque Mind has awakened into the Deformed Soul Skill!"
In a single instant, Vandalieu converged no-attribute Mana, uncolored by any attribute, into the tip of his finger. The pressure of the Mana ruptured the capillaries in his arm.
"It's a simple name, but I suppose I'll call this 'Hollow Cannon.'"
And then he unleashed it at the illusion.
As Eleanora and the others stared at him in disbelief from behind, the recoil from the Hollow Cannon destroyed Vandalieu's hand. The beam erased the illusion and, with overwhelming force, it buried itself in the ceiling of the Trial of Zakkart. And then it pierced through and broke the ceiling as well!
Perhaps the fact that Vandalieu was careful enough to make sure the beam wasn't pointed downwards at the floors that he still needed to clear was proof that he was still composed.
Vandalieu forcibly adjusted his crushed hand back to its original shape as he gave a satisfied nod towards the illusion that had vanished without a trace and the hole that had opened in the ceiling… and then, as he had spent all of his Mana, he collapsed onto the floor.
At that moment, the entirety of the Trial of Zakkart, which existed in a special plane of space, trembled.
"Oooh, OOOOH! OOOOOOOOOOOH!" Gufadgarn roared, his voice sounding like a scream as he desperately drew as much of his power out as he could to maintain the Dungeon.
What on earth had happened? Could it be that Alda, the god of law and fate, had forcibly descended upon the world, rushed towards the Boundary Mountain Range, kicked down the barrier and was now trying to destroy the Trial of Zakkart in exchange for a great portion of his power?
No, this enormous power had been generated from inside the Dungeon.
The owner of this tremendous power… enough to cause great damage to a Dungeon personally maintained by Gufadgarn, the evil god of labyrinths.
Among those currently inside the Dungeon, this could only be Vandalieu.
"OOH, ZAKKART! MY MASTER!"
To be able to release this amount of power with a mortal body… as expected of the one who would become the successor to Zakkart. Gufadgarn's fear of this power did not disappear, but his emotions were ruled by an excitement that pounded in his heart, even greater than that fear.
Gufadgarn felt fear at the fact that one of his own trials had caused Vandalieu to feel enough of something… enough fear and anger to unleash that much power. But to Gufadgarn, even that fear was just another thing that filled the emptiness in his heart.
Vandalieu was dreaming, in a stress-free, light mood.
He was in such a good mood that he could have rolled around on the ground while humming.
But he suddenly realized that a large number of pieces of himself had fallen into his surroundings. It was likely that attacking with Hollow Cannon had caused a spiritual something to be sent flying and scattering from him.
He couldn't feel calm leaving the pieces scattered like that, so he picked them up and gathered them into one place. He tried to stick the pieces back onto himself, hoping that they would return to him, but it was impossible.
"Ah! I'll split them among everyone, just like how I gave the things to Vigaro and the others."
Having come up with this idea, Vandalieu began crawling across the ground, looking for people to give his own fragments to… by the next time he dreamed, his leg that was now in pieces would probably be back to normal.
"I'm sorry for pushing myself too far," said Vandalieu.
He had spent all of his Mana, but due to the synergetic effects of his Level 10 Automatic Mana Recovery Skill and his Level 3 Increased Mana Recovery Rate Skill, he had woken up about an hour later.
After that, he had felt strangely overjoyed at the fact that he still had both of his legs, and then explained the situation and apologized to everyone.
"I knew that it was an illusion, and that I've taken a lot of steps so that Talosheim wouldn't fall into the state that I saw in the illusion so easily even if Heinz and the others attacked, and I haven't forgotten that I left Mikhail and the others there. But I couldn't hold myself back," Vandalieu said remorsefully.
"How am I supposed to scold a guy who's already aware of all of that?" said Borkus.
"Muh, well, you must restrain yourself next time," said Zadiris. "Or you must do things in a better way."
The two of them had complicated expressions on their faces.
In the end, everyone was safe, but taking a risk in this Dungeon that didn't need to be taken wasn't something that could be praised.
But the enemies on this floor had already been wiped out by Vandalieu's attack, and he had enough fighting allies around him for it to not be a problem for him to lose consciousness for a while.
On top of that, all of those who had followed Vandalieu were aware that he was insane. There was no point in being wary of that fact now.
That should have been the case, but could things really be resolved so easily by telling Vandalieu not to worry about it?
"Bad Van," said Pauvina.
"You have to be careful not to use all of your Mana next time," said Darcia, in a stronger tone than usual. "And even if you do, you can't use Bellmond-san's blood to recover it."
"Kuh… that is right, Danna-sama," said Bellmond as she ran her fingers over her neck, her face looking like she was in pain. "Please do things in a better way next time."
Borkus and Zadiris were startled at the fact that they were actually scolding him.
"Yeah, that's bad," said Vigaro, joining in.
"Uoh, Vigaro beat me to it?!" Borkus exclaimed. "Listen, kid, what you did is bad."
"Mmm, it is bad, boy," said Zadiris.
"I wonder if it's really alright for you to say that," Jeena said to Borkus.
"Mother, where's the sternness you showed towards me when I was young?" said Basdia, glaring at Zadiris with half-closed eyes.
It seemed that Vandalieu's lecturing would come to an end with the word 'bad' summing it up.
"Yes, I'm sorry. I'll do things better next time. I need to practice both Hollow King Magic and Dark King Magic," said Vandalieu.
The situation hadn't actually become too serious, and they had gained rewards in the form of Vandalieu awakening new superior Skills, so there was little use in spending a long amount of time to have everyone voice their opinions.
The moment the lecturing ended, Eleanora, Isla and Legion began pouring praise on Vandalieu.
"More importantly, to destroy a floor of the Dungeon with a spell… as expected of Vandalieu-sama," said Eleanora.
"I haven't even heard of a superior No-Attribute Magic Skill. As expected of Vandalieu-sama indeed," Isla agreed.
The two of them were both aware that they had become yes-women who would never disapprove of anything that Vandalieu did.
"I don't really know how amazing that is, but that's amazing," said Legion.
"That is the reason we were silent while they were lecturing you, okay?" said Eleanora.
This was in fact a historically unprecedented achievement.
"Incidentally, Master, I wonder if you could explain the spell that you used?" said Luciliano.
"Well then, should I explain as we proceed forwards? It seems that there are no illusions, monsters or traps left on this floor," said Vandalieu.