Chapter 40: Trial of the Chemist (1)

"How's your arm feelin'?" Jim asked me after a while.

It's been around 15 minutes since we completed the Trial of the Leaper. My right arm, which had experienced severe muscle strain, had slowly begun to heal.

"It still hurts like hell, but... at least I can move it now," I replied, gritting my teeth as I lifted my arm to show him what I meant.

Jim sighed. "Hm... welp, let's wait for a lil' longer, I guess."

"I gotta go soon though..." Ichigo said quietly. "I want to meet up with my friends in real life tomorrow, so I was planning on calling them. It's already nearly 9... I don't want them to fall asleep before I can contact them."

"You'll make Igarashi-kun suffer through pain just so you can call your friends?" Furuwa scoffed. "How selfish."

"Ah, no, that's not what I..."

"It's fine. Let's go. I'm ready," I said, not wanting them to argue any further.

Furuwa eyed me. "You... sure?"

I nodded. "We'll be waiting the entire night if we're going to wait until my arm doesn't hurt at all."

"That..." she sighed. "Fine. If you insist."

Seeing this exchange, Jim chuckled quietly. "Seems she worries about ya quite a bit."

I was the only one who heard this - fortunately. If Furuwa had heard that, she probably would've killed Jim. I, on the other hand, just chose to ignore his words.

The four of us walked through the only way there was to go. It ended up being a spiral staircase that led downwards. After what seemed like an eternity, we, at last, arrived at the final flight of stairs. Walking through the rhombus-shaped entrance, we were greeted by a large room on the other side. The four sides of the room were all equal, making it a square - or rather, a cube. The edges were marked by neon glowing green lines, while there were five white lights in the room - one on each wall, and one on the ceiling. On the other end of the room was a rhombus-shaped entrance similar to the one we were standing below right now, but it was shut tight.

But what drew our gazes was the table placed at the center of the room. It seemed to be a chemical workbench of sorts, with all sorts of vials and beakers containing liquid placed on top of it. All in all, there seemed to be a complete chemistry equipment set on the table.

"The hell is this? Another trial?" Ichigo frowned in confusion.

"Most likely. But given how small this room is, I doubt this will be another trial focused on physical ability," I replied.

"Damn straight. Those beakers 'n' vials on that table are chemistry-related," Jim added. "The one containin' orange-red liquid should be a bloody potassium dichromate solution."

The three of us all looked at him in surprise.

"You... certainly know a lot," Furuwa mused.

Jim chuckled. "Yeah? Well, I am a bloody university chemistry professor, mate."

"In that case... we should be able to get past this trial, right?" Ichigo asked, looking at Jim with hope in his eyes.

Jim shrugged. "Perhaps. But ay, just keep in mind, if this trial will be solely based on chemistry, I can help. But somethin' tells me there's more ta this than just that... bloody oath, mate."

"..." I stayed silent, observing the room to try and get an idea of what the trial is going to be. In the end, I sighed and gave up.

"There's only one way to find out, isn't there?" I smiled wryly.

We nodded at one another and stepped forward into the room. The four of us gathered around the table filled with chemistry equipment, and suddenly, a male AI - the same one who had spoken to us thus far - began speaking once again, its deep and emotionless voice reverberating against the enclosed room's walls.

[Welcome to the final trial of the Vault of Corruption - the Trial of the Chemist.]

The final trial. If we are able to beat this, we can escape. All we had to do was complete this last test.

[This trial, unlike the two before, will test your intelligence - your knowledge on Earth's chemistry, in particular. You are to add correct chemical elements together to form a given chemical compound. However, the name of the chemical compound will not be shown - only its appearance. Therefore, you will have to identify the chemical compound first. In order to pass this trial, you must solve ten such problems.]

So far, everything seemed within expectations. With our chemistry professor here, this should be a breeze. But then, the AI's next words crushed our hopes of this being a cakewalk.

[In addition, there will be a time limit. The ground below you will slowly dematerialize, starting from the outer edges of the room. The total time allotted for this trial is two minutes.]

"O-Only two minutes?!" Ichigo cried. "We have to complete ten chemistry problems in 120 seconds?!"

Furuwa eyed Jim suspiciously. "How about it, Fizroy-san? Can you do it?"

"Hm... that shouldn't be a problem. But... I can't guarantee that all the bloody answers will be right," he replied.

Ichigo quickly sighed in relief. "That's fine. All we have to do is answer ten questions correctly, right? There's no penalty to getting one wron-"

[Furthermore. If you answer a question incorrectly, the sawblades above you will drop down, crushing you instantly.]

As if on cue, the ceiling above us opened up, revealing spinning sawblades covering the whole room, ready to slam down at any moment.

"... Well, there goes that plan," Ichigo muttered quietly to himself, folding his arms.

"This makes things a lot harder..." Jim chuckled sinisterly. "... Exactly how I like it."

That's what she sai-

Nope, I'm not going to say it. It just wasn't the time. Making a dirty joke when we were all about to die? Even I wasn't that insensitive.

[When you are ready, say 'BEGIN' collectively.]

"It's do or die, mates," Jim said, stretching his arms.

Furuwa took a deep breath. "Our lives are in your hands."

"Yep. Whether we live or not is all up to you," Ichigo added. "Oh, but, no pressure or anything."

"... Right," Jim muttered awkwardly.

"Everyone ready?" I asked the other three.

They all nodded, and we called out together:

"Begin."