Chapter 197: Prayers

Chapter 197: Prayers

The more Sofia thought about it, the more it felt deeply wrong. Why would this part of the trial be all about one of the four Lords? She doubted it was specific to her, so everyone had to go through this. That was with the system supposedly knowing very little about the Deep and its Lords. And out of all things, they would choose this exact maze as the test? One that used not a simple Gods rune, but a Lords one?

The same Lords who would erase people for saying their names?

If she was correct, this was incredibly irresponsible. Dangerous. Not for her, maybe, but for everyone else.

Two other people still made it through so its probably not that bad. And that gives another very good reason as to why nobody is allowed to talk about the trial. Because for a normal person, talking about this sculpture is something with the potential to get you erased from the planet and everyones memory

Sofia returned to the cavern layer to look at the statue again.

What could possibly be the real-world use of that thing outside of the trial? Who could have even made it?

I have to say. If thats really the fourth Lord I like Aphenoreths appearance better.

Somehow she convinced herself that she was right about her wild guess despite the little evidence she had. She wanted it to be true, it helped her feel safer. Learning of what she thought was the hidden existence behind this place, she felt a bit more at home. She kneeled before the statue and did something she hadnt done in forever, she prayed.

I am sorry that I thought badly about your appearance, but it is weird. I will be using your rune a lot to get out of here so I hope you do not mind.

Thank you for helping Aphenoreth find me when I was stuck in the loop. Sincerely, I am the Deeps devoted Saintess. And since the Orator wills it, please watch me slay a god in your name.

Sofia froze. Someone had received her prayers, it seemed. Someone that wasnt Edrazeketh.

Her mouth opened without her consent.

Look at you, offering your thanks to the Annihilator himself. Such a funny little thing. Are you enjoying the book, Saintess?

I enjoy it a lot, yes. Thank you. Are you always listening to me?

Cease the foolish act. Get to work. And never again call for his name, the Orator ordered, having Sofia point at the statue, lest you invite trouble you cannot handle the consequences of.

Understood Was that all you came for? Can you help me a little or is that cheating?The initial posting of this chapter occurred via Ñøv€l-B!n.

...

She trained. Having Pareth watch her from the end of the empty corridor she was in, no matter how many times she turned, Sofia was never taken to another layer. So she ran.

[Sprint] reached level 11

[Sprint] reached level 30

Its not going up anymore

That should be enough, right? My speed doubled from when I began. Its not an incredible solution but if the thing cannot catch me then its as good as dead. Kind of Now to recast the rune and get to work.

Her solution to finding the orbs in the easy-to-access layers hadnt really changed; she already had a full map so she only needed to explore the whole thing. The first one she was transported to was the traps one, and so she got to work exploring again.

Using Pareth as an anchor to prevent layer changes worked perfectly. As long as he walked to a corner and could see both Sofia coming toward him and the direction where she would turn, the layer never changed.

Using that technique, the orb of the trap layer was the first she found. Hidden away in a far corner of the maze, there were more traps in the room she found the orb in than she could count. That was no big issue to her, she sent the paladins one by one to die in there, and eventually, most of the traps were disarmed and she could go get the orb herself.

Green orb engraved with spikes, youre mine!

This was a good confirmation that these orbs were the overall goal of the maze.

Sofia was ready as she pocketed the orb, and as she thought, the statue which was holding the orb opened its eye, and Sofia was sent to the eye layer.

The layer bathed in blueish light and its walls covered in eyes was still just as disturbing as it used to be. So far, no monster. Good. Sofia ran around, exploring as much of this layer as she could. It seemed the monstrosity that had chased her before had retracted and returned to its room.

Since she now knew how to prevent an unwanted layer change, Sofia explored the whole thing under the many eyes' unblinking gaze and came to a conclusion. The eye layers orb was either in the small dead-end corridor behind the monsters room, or inside of the monster itself.

If its behind, then maybe, mayyyyyybe I can see a way.

But if the monster has it; I dont really have a solution.

Two people passed this? How did they deal with that thing