CH 2

Episode 2 – Trial of the Beginning 1st round

Translator : MeLena

《Trial of the beginning, it belongs to the lowest difficulty among many dungeons.》

The stone monument talks to me even though I can’t directly hear it.

《 This is a mysterious dungeon. The realm of gods isolated from the outside world.》

“Is there food in the dungeon?”

I’m dying to hear it.

《Challenger, go through the dungeon and obtain honour.》

I want bread and water rather than honour. And it doesn’t seem to listen to me. I don’t know if the stone monument has any will in the first place. I think it’s just repeating words decided by the magic cast upon it.

“Ok! I made my mind up!”

I hit my knees to hype myself up.

At the same time, the stairs leading to the basement in the room shine. It’s obviously telling me to go there.

“I’ll look for food in the meadow.”

I’ll never enter. I decide.

For the last 16 years, I have improved my ability to detect crises in order to avoid assassinations. In fact, no one really tried assassinating me as a prince.

So I think. I wonder if I should go into such a trap-like dungeon.

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◆

Two days have passed and the bread is out of stock.

Water can be drawn from a nearby river, but there are many monsters around it, so it is dangerous to drink water.

In the corner of the room with the stone monument, I’m holding my knees to resist hunger and thirst. The grasslands outside are a scary place. All beings try to deny my precious life.

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I glance at the stone monument. The stone monument glows faintly.

What approach is that? Just looking at it makes me angry.

I throw a stone I picked up outside at it, but it bounces off with a dull sound. There are no scratches.

“I have no choice but to enter the dungeon… I will die if I go on like this.”

The stone monument conspicuously shines. You’re definitely listening.

◆

I take the stairs and go underground. It feels like I’m breaking through a thin film on the way, but I ignore it because I can’t help it.

There is no light source around and it is dim. As I proceeded, being careful not to slip, I gradually see the exit. In contrast to the stairs, it’s so bright that I can’t believe this is underground.

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What I see is a parallelepipedal room. All sides are made of stone, but they shine faintly on their own.

“It’s amazing… If I can bring this type of stone home, it will sell well.”

I put my hand on the wall and follow it. I try to scrape it with a stone at my feet, but I can’t even damage it. The stone monument called this the realm of the gods, maybe it’s be true.

“There are two exits.”

A long passageway continues from the exit. Maybe I can go to another room.

When I look at my feet, a sword has fallen in front of me. Randomly.

“What… copper sword +1?”

The handle of the sword is carefully engraved with the words “copper sword +1”. It feels like I’m being fooled, but I’m glad that I’m being fully equipped.

“If I proceed like this, shields and armour might fall in front of me. If I pick them up and sell them I can become very rich!”

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When I walk through the room with joy and courage, I hear a clicking sound near my feet.

── Suddenly, an arrow flies from a hole in the wall. It cuts through the sky with a whoosh, and pierces towards my feet accurately.

“Guuoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!”

An arrow is stuck in my thigh and blood flows. There is more intense heat than pain. This is my first time experiencing this.

However, I’m not dead yet. When I pull out the arrow by force, the barb of the iron tip irritates the wound and causes severe pain.

“Shit! I have no recovery magic or potions!!”

The blood flowing at my feet does not stop.

Death looms above my head. I can’t afford to die at the very beginning. In the first place, I didn’t think that there was such a vicious trap in the “Trial of the Beginning”.

“Ahhhhhhhhh !!”

I hear a sound. When I raise my head, there is a blue slime there. Each time it moves, its torso changes shape and gets closer as if it has a will.

I try to get rid of it with the copper sword, but it doesn’t cut well. Rather, the acid of the slime melts the sword a little.

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“Ah!! The copper sword is -1!!”

This “+1” or “-1” seems to indicate the strength of the sword. It doesn’t matter at the verge of death though.

“Shit! Wait! We can talk through this!”

However, it doesn’t understand. The slime stretches out, wraps around me and tries to melt me with its body.

(Am I dying? So… easily)

I desperately try to reach out, but I have already lost my senses. Cold. The wound was so hot, and yet now my whole body is so cold as if the heat was a lie.

I suddenly lose consciousness.