Solar Mage

Chapter 39: Second Trial

We speed walk through the entrance without barriers or doors

That's weird, why doesn't this room have a door or any kind of barricade? This means that the monster for this room's trial is sealed like the goblin chieftain, or it's a different kind of trial.

After quickly entering the room, we pay no mind to the unchanged lighting. Tin and Rachel began to slow down as they moved more cautiously, focusing only on the floor in front of them, while I joined them in doing so as well.

Moving cautiously will make us much slower. To move as fast as possible, we need to move without caution. But in order to do so, we need to be certain where we're stepping. Come to think of it, I've barely tested out the limitations of the Sage System; and it has only failed to do what I told it to once.

I move into the middle of Rachel and Tin as I reach into my pocket and take Sage out.

"Sage, can you quickly scan this room for traps?"

"ANSWER: YES"

Great!

It sits in my hand, seemingly doing nothing.

Why isn't it doing anything if it can?

"... Scan the room for traps."

It stops resting in my palms and hovers above my hand.

"ORDER RECEIVED. COMMENCING SCAN."

It flies all the way up to the ceiling and projects out a huge flat vertical green light with a grid design that scans from the end of the room and back, repeatedly.

Tin and Rachel stop moving and stare at the small stone orb producing the amazing and unique green light.

Looks like they noticed it as well. I guess not everything the Sage System projects is only visible to me?

The round, stone ball abruptly stops projecting the green light and flies back down, stopping just above my hand, hovering.

"ROOM TRAP ANALYSIS COMPLETE"

"TRAP TRIGGERS WILL BE ILLUMINATED IN A RED LIGHT"

Sage flies back up to the top of the ceiling.

In my side vision, I notice Tin and Rachel staring back. in my direction.

Are they really that curious? I don't have time to explain myself.

I look up, ready to respond, but I see that their gaze isn't focused on me, but behind me.

What? What are they looking at?

I turn backwards and stare in surprise as I see the vision that they see for myself. I laugh nervously as I look at the path we took to walk here, now illuminated with red light.

Haha...

Every tile other than the ones we stepped on is red... my heightened senses didn't even activate despite how close I was to the traps...

I walk up to Tin and put my hand on his shoulder.

"You have great instincts, Tin."

Rachel does the same, nodding and sticking her thumb up at him.

"Uh, thank you? ..."

We stare at each other in silence.

Tin coughs, breaking the silence and clearing his throat before speaking.

"Let's explore the area quickly, so that we can get out of this dungeon within 6 hours like you said. We need to hurry, there could be tens of rooms left before we reach the exit."

There are only four rooms in total though?

"Lets split up and find the monster, we can search quickly without worrying about traps thanks to that weird stone ball now."

But the monolith is right there...

Rachel begins to speak.

"I'll search the area around that large roc–"

Oh no you don't!

"I'll take a look at the area over there!"

I blurt out, cutting Rachel off while pointing my finger at the monolith.

"Oh– okay."

She says while her enthusiastic face turns to frown.

Aghh– I'm sorry Rachel, but I really need to look at that stone!

"Let's quickly explore and meet back together if we find something!"

"Alright!"

Tin shouts, full of excitement, quickly running to the totem at the far end of the room, while avoiding the tiles lit by red light.

Rachel slowly walks to the totem, on the close side of the entrance, walking closely alongside the red tiles.

Is she that sad about not being able to take a close look at the boring black colored monolith? The wooden totems are so much more interesting! They're decorated heavily in patterns and colors!

I quickly detach myself from thinking about her and swiftly glide over to the monolith while using Swift Wind. Leaping over the numerous trapped plates in the room.

I always reflect on myself, questioning myself if I may be doing something wrong. When I checked my status window, it said that my Swift Wind skill mastery reached level 2. Still, when I use it, it feels like I'm using it wrong despite it increasing my speed many times because it removes the air resistance that increases the difficulty of running, the faster I go. But the nature of wind does not remove the air as it blows; the wind is the air itself.

Then, my glide comes to an end as I drop down to the ground where the monument is.

Damn, my Heightened Senses didn't activate so my thoughts weren't accelerated. Whatever, I'll finish forming that thought later. Let's see what Zinc has to say this time.

"Sage, translate this for me."

No response.

"Sage?"

I look around.

Oh right, it is still up in the ceiling showing us where the traps are. And because Rachel and Tin are separated and still exploring, I can't just call it back or they might step on a trap and die.

I turn back to the monolith.

There's only one thing I can do then, I have to translate this myself!

***

Arthur Ventrike was renowned for his unmatched talent for swordsmanship, it could be said that a sword genius of his level would only come once in five hundred years.

But his talent for swordsmanship overshadowed another, more incredible ability of his; he was not only the holder of the many combat based records in Wolkan Royal Academy and the top student in the Swordsmanship Department. But was also the person who received the highest marks ever recorded for the Wolkan Written Exam that numbered over a thousand questions covering a hundred categories and changed yearly.

How many questions did he get wrong? You may ask? Out of a thousand questions, and the Five Questions of Death, that are formulated by the greatest scholars across the continent based on their discoveries they found that year, and have yet to release to the public, Arthur Ventrike didn't get a single question wrong.

If his talent for the sword is something that comes every five hundred years, it could be said that his intelligence is something that comes every millennium.

His comprehension is irrefutably unmatched, tens of scenarios occur in his mind in every moment, within the same moment, he subconsciously sorts them and finds the most probable one. If none of them are probable enough, in the next moment, it is redone, over and over again until a suitable one is found. His memorization skills are also second to none, once he intentionally examines something, he doesn't forget. The speed of his thoughts and his mastery over the five senses, already incredible with, and without, Heightened Senses.

Within the society of scholars, they have a name for the boy: The Heavenly Brain.

***

"Hmm... I didn't really pay attention to the characters of the language before since Sage already translated it for me.

Hmm, I recognize that character, and that one as well, Oh! I also know those two!

"Okay, so if I add all these characters together, it forms the phrase, Activate the Totems."

Okay that doesn't help me at all, I already knew that the totems had something to do with the trial! Just tell me how to activate them! AUGHH!!!

"AHHHHH!!"

A voice echoes from afar.

Was that me? Did I accidentally say that aloud? No, that wasn't me, that was Rachel's voice!

I immediately snap my head back, to the totem near the entrance where Rachel was.

"RACHEL!!"

The totem sinks into the ground, making a loud sound of stones brushing against each other as the wooden totem sinks into the ground.

Concentrate, eyes!

I use heightened senses and stare intensely at the totem.

Okay, Rachel looks fine, it was just the totem sinking. Hmm... maybe this is a good thing, the monolith did say to activate the totems anyway, maybe sinking means activating!

Then, another loud sound of stones comes from behind the monolith.

I quickly move around the stone and see the totem Tin was searching through and see it begin to sink as well.

God, that sound is so annoyingly loud!

Suddenly, my plate begins to shake heavily

What's this?

The monolith starts to sink into the ground.

"Tin, Rachel, I have a feeling the trial is going to start now. Don't come to the center, I'll handle whatever this monster will be, by myself."

I say, projecting my voice with mana.

The monolith slowly sinks, before it abruptly, vertically cut in half, the platform and all. It stops its descent and falls straight down the hole.

I have a feeling Zinc didn't design the trap to fall like that...

I stare in anticipation at the dark hole where the giant monolith fell through.

Suddenly, my instincts alert me of danger and my Heightened Senses quickly activate.

I reach my hand out and shout.

"Sun's Gate!"

An orange, translucent, horizontal gate is formed on the massive pitch-dark hole.

Just as I cast the spell,

"Clang!!"

I knew it, this is the monster that I have to face in the second trial. I'm excited for what you have to show me! You'd better not disappoint.

The light from the Sun's Gate illuminates the monster, who has one of his hands stuck in the gate.

Ew– what a disgusting monster– it's humanoid, just bones and skin. I've never heard of such a monster before, it mainly has pale blue skin but has splatters of many other colors, red, and yellow. Aside from that, the most troubling matter at hand, its face has been hollowed out, who would do something like that? And those claws look extremely sharp; it should be since it managed to completely cut through that giant stone monolith, but there's no way it can get through my Sun's Gate, especially now that I'm at the 3rd circle!

The monster tries to get its hand unstuck, trying a variety of ways until it finally decides to strike the Sun's gate itself, with all its power.

"CLAANGGGG!!!"

Ow, my ears! These heightened senses don't always help, that's for sure."

I look down and see the Sun's Gate completely intact, without any scratches.

Haha, I knew my Sun's Gate was indestructible, it looks like the only problem it had before was that I didn't have enough mana circuits or something.

"Haha, come on, struggle harder!"

Right I can't waste time on something like this, I have to get out of this place as quickly as possible. That Denon's curse or whatever is really doing a number on my personality.

I reach out my hand, aiming at his hollow face.

"Bye bye."

I cast Dawn and start charging it up, it quickly increases in size, before I compress it and change it into an arrow.

Just as I shoot the arrow I see his untrapped left arm swing one last time.

Ha, it's not going to work–

"BOOM!!"

A small dust cloud forms, hindering my vision.

"cough– cough–"

Did I get him?

The dust cloud dissipates and my vision returns to me. I look at the Sun's Gate.

Yup, it's still completely unscratched, it's dead.

My gaze shifts rightward for some unknown reason.

Why... Why is the floor cracked over there??

I feel a looming presence hover behind me.