Chapter 233

Chapter 233

Simon moved through the opened iron bars to the beginning of the dungeon.

Soon enough, he found himself in a long, narrow passage. There was no sign of humans, nor traces of jet-black.

The only thing he could easily sense was the musty odor of the underground assailing his nostrils. It was so dark he had to strain his eyes to see anything more than an arm's length away.

Simon took a cautious step forward.

Pchunk!

Something could be heard being fired a bit away. He stopped and stared straight ahead.

A pure white arrow was flying toward him.

'A Divine Arrow?'

That was when he heard Pier's voice.

[The power in that arrow is different from a normal Divine Arrow. Don't block it, dodge!]

Simon ducked his head at Pier's instructions.

A pure white flash passed right above Simon, and he could see the arrow clearly from tip to tail.

The arrow flew past Simon and lodged into the wall behind him. Hearing the wall cracking from the impact, it seemed that the arrow packed a serious punch.

'Now I see what it's like.'

[Kuhehe! If your instincts are starting up, then go in!]

Simon smirked and started running straight ahead.

Pshk! Pshk! Pshk!

This time, three shots were fired.

'The first is the same as before!'

He tilted his head back to dodge the arrow high up, continuing the motion to turn sidewards out of the way of an arrow headed straight at his heart. Finally, he dodged the last arrow by lifting his legs.

After standing back up straight, he began to seriously think.

'I didn't even step on a trap but they're firing regardless. Does that mean this test has nothing to do with disarming traps?'

Just as he thought that and took a step forward, he heard the sound of the trap mechanism activating.

Without a moment's hesitation, he launched himself up at the ceiling by detonating jet-black under his feet.

Rows of sharp points stabbed up from the ground, the tip of each spike coated in a purple liquid.

[It's a paralyzing poison! The trap will immobilize you within a minute of being stabbed and leave you vulnerable to arrows!]

'I don't even have a Kaizen uniform, so even getting grazed by that would've meant my end.'

He had spent too long thinking. Even in the air he wasn't safe from triggering traps.

The walls to his left and right flashed with light as if they sensed him descending to the floor, and a magic circle immediately formed on either side.

'Kugh!'

He couldn't afford to step into another trap here.

Simon calmly opened his subspace and pulled out a newly purchased pike for his skeletons. He slammed it into the ground and used it to carry himself forward like a pole vaulter.

Flames erupted from the walls where he was, licking at his heels.

Right as he landed, sweating profusely

Clunk.

The tile he was stepping on pushed in.

'Just how many traps are there?'

Simon ran non-stop. The path behind him was quickly covered in narrowly avoided spikes and the starting wall was beginning to crumble from the number of arrows that struck it.

Every time he put a foot down, he stepped into yet another trap. There were more trigger points than safe ones.

At this point

'It'd be faster to dodge them all instead of trying to find a pattern!'

Simon put all his strength into his feet and shot forward like a rocket.

He dodged the traps coming from all angles with ease, being long-gone by the time they fully activated.

[Boy! Above you!]

Not even taking the time to look, Simon immediately flung himself down against the floor and lay as flat as possible. A spiked log swung just above his head, slicing through the air with a murderous sound.

As the log reached the end of its arc and was about to swing back, Simon scrambled to his feet and dashed forward.

Clunk.

Click.

Fwooosh.

Trap after trap triggered over and over.

'Ugh, isn't this too hard?'

Simon dodged the flying divine arrows without consciously processing a single thing going on.

Now, he was crossing red beams of light that activated traps when he touched them. His leg brushed over one.

Pssssssshhhhhhhh!

A poisonous mist sprayed from the ceiling, making the already dim lighting even harder to see in.

Simon immediately stopped walking, conjuring over his mouth the 'Mask' magic circle he'd learned in Poisonous Alchemy.

As the spell turned into a thin film that filtered the air for him, Simon pulled a small cotton ball from his subspace and held it to the mist. The exposed cotton turned brown.

'Spore poison from red mushrooms. The antidote is the summer life herb.'

"Well, at first, I was just trying to take him as a direct disciple since he's the all-important S.A.1, but I'm growing to like him more and more. He's a similar type to me."

To you?

The MC almost said that out loud, but he held it back like a professional.

"You mean that calm-looking boy is?"

"Yeah! He has that wild sense! And above all!"

Belya laughed, flashing her jagged teeth.

"He's fucking unique!"

* * *

Simon immediately moved to the second stage of the test.

Compared to the first stage, there was a significant upgrade in difficulty. The path was bigger and wider, and there were more traps.

Most notably, the traps didn't trigger when you stepped on them, but they just popped out and flew at you without any regularity.

Divine arrows, spikes on the floor, fire in the walls.

On top of that, divine whips crackled, divine spears fell from the ceiling, and occasionally the 'Exorcism' spell was triggered.

'They're using such dangerous divinity spells here?'

Simon was amazed at Kizen's viciousness in striking fear into the hearts of necromancers, even in a test like this.

Having taken in what was happening, Simon stepped into the gauntlet.

Frantically, he rolled, cart-wheeled, ran along the ceiling, and more. Once he entered, he could not stop moving.

It was also tough trying to pretend to be hurt by the divinity.

As he weaved through a hail of divine arrows, the crowd watched in real-time as several of them pierced his body.

They commentators showered Simon with praise for his indomitable will for being able to press through regardless, but in reality, he was perfectly fine.

"Huff, huff."

Eventually, he made it through. The lack of rest actually made him go faster than in the first stage.

'Urk, there were some real arrows.'

Sometimes, normal arrows were shot with a coating of divinity. The one that hit him hurt enough that his bottom lip was trembling as he tried not to show weakness.

Simon squeezed his eyes shut and grabbed at the arrow lodged deep in his thigh.

"Hmmmph!"

Then, he pulled.

His thigh screamed with pain, the scream working all the way up his body until it tore through his mouth.

"Aaaargh!"

It was stuck in much deeper than he thought. The pain radiated up his entire thigh, and his entire leg felt like it was on fire.

Simon let go of it momentarily as he gasped for air.

The pain was so intense that tears formed in the corners of his eyes. He hadn't realized that pulling the arrow out would be more painful than it being stuck in.

[Of course it won't work if you try to forcefully pull it out!]

Pier scolded him.

[You can cast jet-black enchantments, right?]

'Ah, yes. I'm not as good as Rick, but I can do the basics.'

[Coat the entire thing with a small dose of jet-black and then pull the arrow out.]

Simon did as he was told. He coated the arrow with jet-black, and it came out cleanly.

He then poured a potion over the open lesion to stop it from getting infected and to restore some of the tissue.

The fact that it worked was so shocking.

Clatter.

Dropping the arrow, Simon swallowed his frustration at not being able to use divinity to bypass all of this because of the test before pulling out another vial of recovery potion.

Finally, the pain subsided a bit.

He stared at the next obstacle, which could be seen through the broken open wall.

The third stage was an even larger passageway than the previous one, and it was perfectly smooth.

There were no bricks, no tiles, no red lasers. It was just an empty tunnel.

And a red buzzer was at the very end.

But there was no hint of traps

Simon cautiously pulled out two skeletons from his subspace and sent them in first. The skeletons leisurely walked forward.

Not so many steps after

Shing! Slice! Swoosh!

Countless weapons came out of the ceiling. The skeletons were instantly buried under a mound of deadly instruments.

[Kuhaha! They're really serious this time!]

'Seems like it.'

Simon nervously opened his subspace again.

This time he pulled out the golem core. Placing it on the ground, Simon rolled up his sleeves.

'I have no choice. I'll use the blood golem here.'