Chapter 158

Get In Line (2)

The eyes of the receptionist and mine naturally turned to the source.

He, who had just yelled, had ended the communication and was staring at us.

He constantly huffed as his anger filled his body all the way to the tip of his head.

The devil who saw that sighed shallowly.

The alien pointed his finger at her face and shouted.

“I asked what you’re doing! Are all the other waiting ones retarded? One hundred forty thousand beings are waiting for their turn, but why are you only letting him in right away? Are you kidding me?!”

The devil spoke with an expression that seemed to say she direly didn’t want to answer back.

“Can’t you see this?”

She had the System-Class item, [Priority Ticket], in her hand that I gave her a few minutes back.

The ticket shone in bright gold.

The Union knew that there was a vast waiting queue in the only place where unique skills could be upgraded and helped me not to waste time.

They gave out an item that could only be received by offering one million experience points for free.

It definitely came in handy. However, that man, who picked on her, seemed to dislike what he was currently witnessing in front of him.

He harshly replied as he glared at the ticket in the receptionist’s hand.

“So what?!”

Being ignorant made one brave.

With a colossal body about twice my height, he stared his only eye out.

Growl! A threatening sound of boiling under his Adam’s apple reverberated. Simultaneously, he revealed his sharp fangs.

The devil spoke in a bored voice.

“This temple is managed and controlled by the system. The system sets all rules. I’m just succumbing myself to that.”

In other words, the magic race member serving as a receptionist there was also being ordered around by the system.

Among the magic world residents with no Gates open, there was no ‘user’ assisted by the system. Like Euclid, they had all Awakened their Mana Cores without the system.

That didn’t mean that there was no contact point with the system at all.

A system administrator was the one responsible for binding them to act as dungeon bosses and become in charge of managing important points, just like right at that moment. In the big picture, they were in similar situations.

The receptionist flapped around the ticket and replied to him.

“This item is a ticket that allows one to bypass the existing rules of first-come, first-served basis. If you bring this, no matter how long the line in front is, we have to place the holder in the next order. If you also understand this as a rule….”

A thunderous roar rang once more.

“I don’t want to know any of that!”

He’s a reckless kid, wasn’t he?

The devil’s eyebrows furrowed.

“If you feel it’s unfair, save up a million points and exchange them for the item.”

In other words, it meant that more than 140,000 races were camped there and waiting at that moment alone.

It was a phenomenon that proved how valuable points were to those who started the Main Quest.

Grooowl!

The one-eyed giant’s behavior grew more and more aggressive.

‘Huh? Perhaps that bastard- in here?’

They couldn’t expect that all the races that entered the Main Quest were socially and culturally mature.

It looked like in some civilizations, being strong, loud-voiced, stubborn, and throwing tantrums could solve most things.

And that giant seemed to come from such a civilization.

“Shut it! If you’re going to let him cut in line, I want to get in as well!”

It was a sentence frequently spoken by those who grew up in such cultures.

‘You did it for him, but why not me? Are you discriminating between people?!’

The eyes of the devil became heavily murderous.

“If you obstruct our business any further….”

“If so? What are you going to do?”

Then, Mana began to flow roughly from the giant’s Core. It colored the vicinity with red hues.

‘Crazy bastard.’

He was planning to suppress the receptionist by force.

I was so dumbfounded that I clicked my tongue.

‘He doesn’t know his place.’

He shouted.

“You! Do you know who I am? In my dimension, I’m…”

The receptionist muttered briefly in a dry voice.

“I don’t care.”

At that moment…

Swish!

I bore witness to it.

A colossal amount of Mana spread out from the Core of the devil.

I knew how powerful she was the moment I entered.

Her Mana was about two million.

Four times than mine.

She was a strong being who overwhelmed Lapress, the Elite warrior I encountered recently.

‘Even I wouldn’t win if I were to fight her.’

“Huh… Huh?”

The one-eyed alien looked at the air as if he were baffled. A pitch-black sphere was floating around where his gaze was.

While having caught everyone’s eyes, a horizontal crack slowly formed at the center of the black sphere.

The mouth that had been closed so far had opened.

Sharp fangs and a flicking red tongue-

The devil that summoned the creature murmured.

“This temple is a first-class strategic facility designated by the system. Those who seek trouble or practice violence here…”

Her voice didn’t have a single drop of emotion mixed in.

The alien, who sensed what was about to happen intuitively, shouted desperately.

“W-w-wait!”

The devil replied.

“Executing immediate disposition.”

With those words…

Crush!

Blood splattered everywhere.

Perhaps he didn’t want to die, considering how while arguing, Mana Barrier thoroughly protected his body. The sharp fangs of the spherical monster dug into the skin without mercy anyway.

Crush! Crack!

After a couple of bites, the alien’s body was torn apart and ripped, and it completely disappeared after being consumed by the sphere.

All that’s left was blood marks all over the reception room.

It was a ridiculously fast suppression and a hopelessly simple death.

A thought came to my mind while I was looking at it.

‘He was defeated by deliberately meddling with the dungeon boss that does not attack as long as one obeys the rules. Stupid.’

The devil yawned, causing her mouth to open a little, then flicked her fingers.

At that moment, the ball, while floating, went around the reception room, licking the place with its tongue.

Soon, a clear-cleaning effect better than pouring a strong detergent occurred.

The blood splattered all over the stone structure had disappeared without a trace.

“There seemed to have been a little commotion. Please sit down and wait for a moment.

She spoke calmly after returning the summoned object.

I sat down, behaving myself, and waited according to her instructions.

After a few minutes, the door, which had been closed, opened, and an Awakened came out. He was someone who had challenged the trials right before.

He looked as if he lost everything.

His shoulders were sagging.

There was a deep sense of disappointment in his steps.

The alien, who just finished the challenge, murmured in a sullen manner.

“Shit, I completed none of the three this time as well!”

He went to the receptionist and spoke. As if to mumble.

“I want to challenge the trials.”

The receptionist gestured as she previously did in front of the alien, who seemed defeated, and that time again, the hologram came up.

As he said his name and origin dimension as he was instructed, the Archid text showed him a message.

“145,000 waiting… It increased while I was in there. Damn it.”

He couldn’t overcome the ordeal and had failed. Since he couldn’t complete the quest, of course, the skill upgrade was impossible, and if he wanted to challenge it again without giving up, he had to go back to the end of the queue to start all over again.

“Next, you. Get in.”

My turn came after a short wait.

***

Inside the door was a line of proper altars as a temple should’ve had.

That’s right. There wasn’t only one altar there.

‘So this is the first-class strategic facility designated by the System, huh?’

It means that it was that much of an important place for the administrators.

“Welcome.”

The one guarding that place was an entity whose identity I couldn’t even assume.

Even if I knew a lot of things, it wasn’t like I knew the skeletal structure of all races.

Wearing a cape with only a skeleton left, he was called “The Sage of the Red Wilderness.”

Like the receptionist devil, nothing was known about him. Perhaps the only exception was that he had been restrained by the system, forcing him to repeat the same work seemingly endlessly.

He must’ve been enduring for a very long time since it was said that he existed from the moment the Main Quest began.

“Anyone who wants to upgrade their unique skills must overcome three trials here. Afterward, the Quest completion judgment will automatically appear, and you will be able to trade with the system.”

He then stretched out his thin, bony finger and pointed to the altar behind me.

“Here, there is an altar serving the seven gods.”

The form of the altar itself was familiar to me since I had seen it several times.

Except for one, each statue depicting a god’s form was located, and there was a space for offerings to be placed underneath it.

“If you choose three gods among them and offer tribute to them, the god will give you an appropriate trial. It is up to your discretion and freedom to receive the trial by offering to whomever god you choose.”

Saying ‘Except!’ he tilted his finger and pointed to one spot.

Unlike the other gods’ altar, there was no statue.

The god of the mind.

I knew it even if I didn’t get close. Not even a little divine power would be on that altar.

It was the only deity whose priests borrowed its power or incarnation’s presence had never been witnessed.

“I am not aware if you already know, but the altar of the mind god does not respond to any tribute. Nevertheless, the reason why there is an altar is… Not to be questioned to me, as it must also be the will of the system. But if you truly want to receive a trial from the Mind god, there is an alternative.”

The Sage pointed at himself at that moment.

“With the power that the System has given me, I will give you the trial instead of the god of the mind.”

It was a very arrogant declaration to replace a god’s influence, but the Sage’s tone was serene.

“Of course, you don’t need to offer me a tribute. Many Awakened beings choose this path as one of the three trials because they think it will be easier coming from me than the ones they receive directly from a deity. However, I want to warn you ahead of time that my trial will not be easy at all. Alright, that’s enough for the explanation.”

The blank black holes in the skull’s face stared at me.

“What do you choose?”

I needed to choose three out of the seven gods.

There was no need to ponder.

“For the first, I’ll choose the trials of the ‘mind.’”

“As expected, so do you.”

The Sage snickered and grinned, then continued.

“Well, I’ll get started right away.”

He pulled a crystal ball out of his arms.

“This ordeal is to test your mental strength. From now on, you will have to fight the most horrible memory you’ve ever had or with the most terrible imagination that you can draw in your head. I wish you luck, then.”

As soon as he finished saying that…

Boosh!

Mana flowed out of the crystal ball and covered the room densely.

I was curious.

Perhaps the most terrible memory would be the memory of the past life as Angelica betrayed us and lost all my colleagues?

On the contrary, the most terrible imagination that I had never experienced was literally unimaginable.

However, on the vision that was to be summoned to torture me, there was no way that I would be left out.

As I waited for a moment for a typical reaction…

“W-what?!”

The Sage, who was looking into the crystal ball, was baffled.

“W-what’s wrong with this? It has never been broken before!”

The reason why he was baffled was simple.

The “Apparition Skills” unleashed through the crystal ball that the system handed him didn’t work against me at all.

-[The Successor’s Eyes (Rank: EX)] has resisted against [Vision of the Trial (Rank: SSS)]!

Whenever I came into contact with that kind of skill, [The Successor’s Eyes], which always functioned properly without fail, prevented me from being immersed in visions.

“C-can it be? Perhaps? You are….”

I stuck out my finger nonchalantly.

It was equivalent to a full-length report that could explain and reason out at that situation.

Seeing the scar engraved on my finger, the skeleton trembled.

“O-oh, my! You fooled me! You should have told me earlier!”

‘You didn’t even ask.’

Instead of protesting like that, I spoke calmly.

“I have not ridiculed you. As you guessed, I am the one who is connected to the will of the great being. However, even so, I didn’t think it was right to just pass through the ordeal. I thought it was right to challenge first and show that I could pass without being affected.”

“… Even if so, you should have let me know in advance!”

Then the Sage declared with the power he held.

“You have now passed the first ordeal!”

Paht!

At that moment, the System message was updated.

– Quest Progress: (1/3)

He grumbled.

“I only wasted my time.”

He looked closely at my finger and continued.

“Is the bug bite-like shape… Igras-Sho? I see. Thanks to the grace of a god, two of the three ordeals had been like a piece of cake. Of course, you’re going to ask the Magic god for one of your trials, aren’t you?”

He thought that Igras-Sho wouldn’t give a harsh ordeal to a special mortal the god loved and gave attention to.

‘I don’t know, will that actually be the case?’

It would worsen if it left hundreds of holy wounds all over my body just because the god felt like it was nice to see me again.

Instead of explaining everything I had in mind in detail, I chose the next trial right away.

“Next, I challenge this altar.”

Unlike the god of the mind, any altar had a normal deity from then on.

As I got closer, round blood drops came up from the holy scar.

It stemmed from the fact that it wasn’t the altar of Igras-Sho.

The Sage nodded when he saw the direction I had moved.

“I see. You’re saving the ordeal of Igras-Sho for the last, which is the same as having passed anyway, right?”

I took a tiny Mana Core out of my arms without answering.

What sacrifices should be offered to make easy ordeals come out was different based on each person’s opinion.

Some argued that an expensive and valuable offering should be given to receive an easy trial in return. In contrast, others argued that offering a powerful sacrifice would make it more difficult according to the level.

‘Nothing has been proven anyway.’

So I decided to make a sacrifice that I could barely save face.

Even if the ordeal’s difficulty were perfectly random, if I threw a trash-like thing on the altar of a god, I wouldn’t be able to handle the consequences.

The Sage spoke to me as I walked to the altar with blood dripping from my fingers.

“I see. Are you planning to receive the ordeal by the man in charge of the ‘sword’? It’s an altar that many choose.”

I could hear his explanation behind my back.

“The ordeal of the great being is simple and difficult. The challenger must endlessly fight the enemy and win.”

It was said that the one that most recently offered was summoned to a magic dimension.

“Only after slicing the necks of over 500 devils did he return to this place. He was sent to a dimension not even connected through a Gate without a teleportation ticket and returned. Shall I say it’s indeed the power of a god?”

The Sage spoke as I took out the offering.

“Then, have a safe trip.”

Leaving those words as a background noise behind me, I placed the small Mana Core on top of the altar.

“… Hmm?”

Right after that, I couldn’t help but feel a bit of disharmony.

‘What, wasn’t it that I’ll be transmitted as soon as the offering was made?’

The scenery in front of me was no different from just a while ago.

I was still inside the temple, where seven altars were placed side by side…

And the skeleton Sage who looked at me was…

‘?!’

He was frozen in place like a glacier.

I wondered if something had surprised him for him to be like that, but at the next moment, I realized it wasn’t the case.

He was frozen like a plaster impression, without a subtle motion.

It was a phenomenon wherein the time of every object around me had stopped excluding me.

‘Why is this…’

And the moment I turned my head again…

‘!’

I saw a man sitting on the altar where the offering vanished.

Of course, he wasn’t here until just recently.

He had a broken sword in his right hand. With a very tired look on his face, he was staring slightly downwards.