Chapter 286 - Escape

[What class do you want to select?~]

"Metal"

[I see… Well then... in accordance with the powers granted to by the administrator I, the 27th archangel of Alfan grants you Mercury the class of Metal!]

Mercury waited for a few moments, but nothing changed so he asked Party

"Did I get it?"

[Yep, please confirm with your status~]

"Okay… Status"

Name: Mercury

Age: Error

Race: Null

Class: [Metal]

Class level: 1

Titles: [Last member of the ********* ** *** ******] [First of the ********] [Sinner of the ****** race] [Cursebreaker]

Strength [10/1000] - Constitution [10/1000] - Dexterity [10/500]

Intelligence [10/100] - Wisdom [10/100] - Carisma [10/10]

Class skills: [Metal assimilation, lv--] [Essence refining, lv--] [Essence consuming, lv--] [Essence shop, lv--]

Active skills: [Earth magic, lv10]

Passive skills [Cursebreaker, lv--] [Pain resistance, lv03]

"...Neat"

Mercury could somewhat figure out what his new skills did by the names but he still asked Party

"So, what do the skills do? Just to make sure"

[Hmm~ Metal assimilation allows you to turn metal into an essence which can be used by other skills, Essence refining allows you to turn essence back into metal, Essence consuming allows you to consume essence and change it into status points, and finally, Essence shop allows you to buy new skills and level up~]

"I see, thanks for the explanation Party"

[Erem~ You can always ask big sister Party anything you don't understand~]

"Will do"

Mercury walked on while talking to Party and soon he finally made his way to the armory, that was hidden behind a solid steel wall

"...Well let's see how this works"

Mercury put his hands on the solid steel wall and spoke out loud

"[Metal Assimilation]"

Then it happened, the solid steel wall that had stood for millennia without crumpling or rusting suddenly looked like it began to rust rapidly as it decayed away at lightning speed leaving only  a small amount of dust that also quickly disappeared

"...Neat"

Mercury could tell, the dust and decay that wasn't the metal, those were impurities that were in the metal, even though the level of technology that was used to forge the steel door was high there still were a small number of impurities in it

'Well besides that the essence was good, a whole 1604 essence points… Not that I have any benchmark for it…'

[How was it?~]

"Well it was alright I suppose… But now for the real treat"

Mercury looked around in what he had thought was the armory and how right he was, only

"Son of a… Fine, I am not mad…"

[Says the guy pacing around the room like a mad man~]

The weapons were there and they in fact were in prime condition, only they were made of wood carved with some kind of inscriptions that faintly glowed in the dark room, what Mercury didn't know was that those weapons were in fact some of the most powerful on the continent and carved on them were some of the most powerful ancient magic formations and that anyone of those weapons could level the giant pyramid he was currently inside and Party didn't tell him as he didn't ask

"Shit… Wait, there's one in here…'

Just as Mercury was about to step out of the room he picked up something in the corner of the room

"Let's see… What's this?"

Mercury walked over guided by his earth magic, under the faint light he could see something glistening, he reached out and touched the metal, it was cold to the touch

"Well well well… Looks like there was something of value here"

Mercury picked the thing up, from feeling the shape of it and by the thing it was clear that it was a sword of some kind, as for what kind Mercury could not tell

[Are you going to absorb the blade?~]

"...Nah, I'll use this as my 'fuck off' signal to other people"

[You are not exactly the most social person are you?~]

"How should I know?"

[Right~ Well don't go swinging it around it looks very sharp~]

"I won't"

Mercury walked back out of the Armory but instead of walking back down to the entrance of the pyramid he continued on his way upwards

[Where are you going?~]

"Up, towards the surface"

[Oh right, I almost forgot~ This is still underground~]

What Party said was true, Mercury could feel it too form using his earth magic, they, or at least he was underground quite a way too, in fact, the whole pyramid was buried under layers of sand that long since had been compacted into sandstone, above that Mercury could tell that there were no more earth so he figured that would be the surface of Alfan, so he continued moving upwards in the pyramid while talking with Party, soon he reached a grand and imposing door that seemed to made entirely of sandstone, like most of the pyramid but they were covered with inscriptions like the wooden weapons and staffs from the armory

"Well this isn't ominous at all"

[Maybe you should just dig up from here?~]

A few moments passed before Mercury slowly shook his head, then he spoke

"....Nah a real man would kick open the door and loudly announce his presence"

[Ohh~]

"So without further ado… Honey I am HOME!"

Mercury kicked open the door on home, aided by his earth magic the multiple ton doors swung open and hit the walls with a bang, then as if it was a 90's action movie the blazers in the room lit up in pairs until the light reached the throne where a mummified person sat

"...I suddenly have a bad feeling"

Mercury looked at the two statues on either side of the throne which eyes had lit up with a red glow

"Shit…"

[Looks like you're in trouble now Mercury~]

Mercury watched as the two giant statues came to life, the bodies seemed to made of sandstone and their chest's glowed with a red light much the same as their eyes, Mercury made a fist and then brought it down onto his own palm as he suddenly had an idea

"...I got it"

[You got what?~]

"Well, this"

Mercury slowly turned around before he suddenly started sprinting down the hallway from where he came while screaming

"Fuck this shit I'm out!"

He reached the opposite wall before he stomped the floor hard and formed a tunnel going upwards with a ladder made of the stone before he quickly started climbing as his life depend on it, well it kind of did as the two stone golems followed him out in the hallway and he only just managed to escape from their grasp, no literally, a giant hand made of sandstone closed under him just as he climbed up above the hallway

"Shit that was close!"

[Yeah it was, he almost got your little toe~ Oh and you better twist your escape tunnel~]

"Sure thing!"

Mercury stopped forming the ladderway that went straight up and made a horizontal tunnel and quickly jumped into the newly formed hallway, as he did a beam of red light shot up through the ladderway melting the surrounding stone as if it was butter on a hot summer day, Mercury looked at the ladderway that he had just escaped form as he muttered

"...Thanks, Party"

[You're welcome Mercury~ Now you better hurry up, cause here come the next beam~]

"Shi---"

Mercury jumped to the side, the bedrock around him carved inwards forming an escape tunnel, or more like a small hiding hole that hid him from the beam, but not the molten stone

"Shit, hothothotthotHOT!"

Mercury tried to remove the molten stone from his calf with his hands which resulted in his hands getting burned too

[Looks like your in luck Mercury~]

"HOW!?"

[Well it looks like they can only fire their beams once per few minutes or else you would be dead~]

Mercury eventually managed to get most of the molten stone off along with most of the skin on his right calf and hands that is

[Why didn't you just remove it with your magic Mercury?~]

"BECAUSE AGRH IT FUCKING HURTS!!!"

[Sure looks that way~ But you might want to move before those golems recharge their beam weapons~]

Mercury eventually managed to calm down and move towards the surface while enduring the smell of burnt flesh coming from his own leg… Meanwhile, unbeknownst to Mercury, the two golems started digging towards the surface, having been awoken their programing only held one command: Kill the weapon if it escapes…

"Finally… Fresh air…"

Mercury could see the night sky above him, he climbed out of the hole in the ground and looked around

"Some kind of city..?"

[You might want to steal some clothes~ That or try to explain why you're naked~]

"Oh... Right…"

[Oh and come visit a temple sometime and call for me~ Well then that's the end of the free trial~ Bye-bye Mercury~ See you soon~]

Mercury paused, he felt the presence of Party leave him and gave a sigh before he felt a cold breeze in his nether regions and decided to find some clothes…

Molly let out a yawn, she was beyond tired, but she did volunteer to take the night shift after all so she stifled it somewhat

'Can't wait to get out of this shithole…'

That was the reason she had taken the night shift, after all, traveling wasn't free and if it were it was far from safe, especially for a young woman such as herself but she had decided to do it, after all, she had to leave this shithole of a town soon

'Before he finds me…'

Suddenly she heard a boom outside, the hunters that were drinking inside the guild all got alert and rushed outside, Molly thought against it for a bit before she eventually followed after the hunters out of the guild, there she saw a naked man collapsed against a half-collapsed wall, it was clear that someone just had sent him flying

"Take that you pervert!"