Chapter 39: His path of traps
Then he walked to the last entrance path by the right. The tunnel was cool but brightly lit, as if he was standing under a sun. The wall was made of brown rocks, and he could have sworn that he heard different gears moving behind the wall.
The seven entrances all had their dangers. All of them were filled with dangers and traps.
Ordinarily, if Severin were to walk one of the paths alone without any backup, then he would be turned into a rag.
"This one... is the path of the endless traps."
Fortunately for him, he wasn't going far.
With just five steps into the tunnel, he stopped and bent down to pick a small stone. He threw it, and immediately it touched the ground, the ground disappeared.
A large hole yawned like the maw of a monster.
Severin shuddered. Not that there weren't eyes on him, he could freely express his emotions and expression. "This author is really twisted. He spent time, little details even on dungeons."
He was hesitating, and he knew it. He needed to get stronger, but it wouldn't be an easy thing.
Unlike a main protagonist and his cast, or all the other prominent characters with overwhelming powers, Severin would have to strive for every power he acquired, and he would have to discard and upgrade all the time.
"Really, must be nice to be a main character," he muttered.
And because he'd seen what happened to the weak — a whole group of them wiped out and turned into energy to trigger the dungeon — Severin took a deep breath and stepped to the edge of the hole, staring down into its depth.
Fangs gleamed down at him. They weren't really fangs but metal spears that jutted out of the ground like trees, tips gleaming with a green liquid.
Falling on one of them wasn't an ideal situation for Severin.
But he would have to fall into the hole all the same. The trick was doing it without getting speared by the spears. There was another entrance set into the side of the wall, and that was his target.
Not exactly easy for someone that was nearly human.
"The more I think about it, the harder it will become."
Without any more hesitation, his hand went up, and the dagger blurred towards the wall, punching through. A blue thread was connected, and he used that to swing into the hole like a spider monkey.
It was something that he had practiced again and again. The numerous bruises on his body bore testimony to that.
But he had never practiced with spears down on the ground.
The momentum of the drop made it seem as if the spears were rushing towards him, and he nearly lost his composure. But he gripped the thread tightly, jerking to a stop in midair with a force that nearly tore his shoulder away.
He dangled briefly as he slowly released the thread, angling at the entrance. He used his hand as leverage and pushed himself over.
His limbs shook as he let the thread fall. Leaning against the wall, he was breathing hard. "I shouldn't do that frequently."
This was Eric's lucky event. The bastard had chosen the entrance and somehow fallen into a hole filled with metal spears when chasing after the students, but somehow he didn't die.
Instead, he managed to crawl into the hole that Severin was currently standing in.
He looked into the tunnel. Instead of the general brightness that filled the dungeon in general, this tunnel was dark and still.
"This is where it gets interesting, but not really for me. The author mostly told Eric's part through flashback, so not all of the things he did in here were recorded."
His hand went to the small pouch on his side where the artifacts were. "But one thing is certain. He grew stronger here."
Severin drew the sword, and the sound of metal seemed even louder than usual, but he paid it no mind as he began to walk straight forward. He used his sword as a walking stick to check the ground for traps.
But till he reached the end of the tunnel, there was nothing out of the ordinary. He even got used to the darkness. He reached the door that seemed to be made of dark wood.
Without even doing anything, the door opened by itself.
Severin took a deep breath, and then he opened the door.
A system notification came immediately.
You have entered the domain of a timeless Immortal Sword Saint. A being that is obsessed with training.
He understood then. This was one of the reasons that Eric became a Sword Saint. Someone that was already talented in sword fighting. It wasn't all that surprising.
When he turned back, he wasn't surprised that the door was gone.
The room looked like a training hall, only the outdated type with straw targets and stone weights.
But what made it different from all the other training rooms that Severin had seen before was the fact that there were countless swords piercing the ground and the wall, all of them radiating a cold aura.
The system notification came again, not surprising because the system worked a bit better in dungeons.
The trial has begun. Pass the four of the Timeless Immortal Saint.
Immediately he saw the notification, the space in front of him shimmered, and a rabbit came into view. It was a humanoid. Its head was that of a rabbit, and all other parts were human-like except for the white fur that covered it.
The rabbit wore leather armor and carried a sword.
Its eyes flashed red, and it jerked awake. Its aura unfolded, still in the Awakened Stage, and yet the pressure was enough to make Severin's mouth sour. "Try to kill me."
The rabbit said, voice flat and dull, as if it was a machine that was speaking.
Severin felt a chill in his heart as the situation that made Eric into a powerhouse began to take shape. Is this really a lucky event or a misfortune?
"I'm not a sword genius. Fuck. I shouldn't have come here."
True fear ran down his spine, and a miserable smile twisted his lips. "I'm really going to kill the author."
"Try to kill me," the rabbit said again and burst forward.
Its speed was so fast that Severin didn't see it coming until the rabbit stood in front of him. Its sword flashed forward. Severin felt a rush of heat, and his head flew.
His blood painted the air in bright red.