“Did you find anything?” Leo asked Nina once they met back up at the black altar.
“No, nothing. There doesn’t seem to be an exit, either.”
“So we’re trapped in here…?” Leo sighed.
“I knew it… That Otherworlder had tricked us. That was probably his way of revenge against the world that denied him— by luring people like us into a death trap that cannot be escaped.” Nina rubbed her eyes in a stressed manner.
“…” Leo didn’t say anything because he wasn’t paying attention to Nina. Instead, he focused on the black altar.
“Let’s try activating the magic circle,” he suddenly said.
“Huh? What if it’s a trap and kills us?” Nina raised an eyebrow.
“I mean, we’re already trapped down here. If we don’t do anything, we will still die down here, so we might as well try it.”
Nina pondered for a moment before nodding her small head, “Alright. Let’s do it.”
“Good, because I already have an idea on how it’ll activate.”
Leo used Feather Step on himself to increase his agility before jumping to the top of the altar, where an artifact and a white envelope rested.ᴘᴀ ɴ ᴅᴀ n ᴏ ᴠᴇʟ
The artifact was a small orb the size of a baseball, and it had a chain attached to it. The orb appeared to have some kind of red liquid inside, and it emanated an unfathomable aura.
“What grade do you think this artifact is?” Leo asked Lilith.
“At least A-Grade, most likely,” she said.
Leo turned his focus to the envelope that was resting right beside the artifact, and after pondering for a moment, he picked it up and opened it.
“What did you find, Leo?” Nina asked him from the bottom.
“There’s an artifact and an envelope up here,” he said.
“An artifact?! What kind?”
“I don’t know. I’ll bring it down for you to see later. Let me see what’s inside this envelope first.”
He pulled out a piece of paper from inside the envelope and read it out loud.
“My name is Edgar Darkmore, also known as the ‘Elder’. I am an Otherworlder. If you wish to seek my legacy, pick up the ‘Elder’s Orb of Restraints’ to activate the trial.” pᴀɴda nᴏvel
“Trial…?” Nina mumbled in a low voice after hearing this word.
Leo picked up the artifact on the altar and said, “He must be talking about this artifact.”
He jumped down from the altar and showed Nina the artifact.
“T-This thing contains an overwhelming amount of mana!” Nina was so shocked by what she saw with her Spiritual Eyes that she fell backwards and landed on her buttocks.
p ᴀɴ da n ᴏv el “Do you know what kind of artifact it is?” Leo asked her.
“N-No… But it’s definitely an S-Rank artifact,” she said in a trembling voice.
“Hmm…” Leo stared at the artifact with a pondering face.
Dong!
The entire chamber suddenly shook for a few seconds startling Leo and Nina.
“Leo! Look at the altar!” Nina suddenly pointed at the altar behind him and exclaimed. ,c,om
He turned around to see the black altar had suddenly become bright red.
Then, a familiar voice resounded in the chamber, “The Elder’s Trial will begin now. Defeat all of the monsters to clear it. There are no restrictions for this trial.”
“That’s the Elder’s voice!” Leo immediately recognized his voice.
“Leo, get ready to fight! They’re coming!” Nina exclaimed as over a hundred magic circles suddenly appeared all over the chamber.
Over the next several moments, over a hundred monsters were summoned into the chamber.
These monsters looked like the Desert Stalker without its camouflage. They all had an extremely skinny figure and stood on two legs, and in their grasp were magic staffs and magic wands.
Nina immediately chugged a mana potion before summoning 200 skeleton warriors and 20 skeleton mages.
“Be careful, Leo! I don’t recognize these monsters!” Nina said to him as she commanded her skeletons to attack these unknown monsters.
However, when the skeleton warriors attacked these monsters, their weapons were deflected from the monster’s body, almost as though there was an invisible barrier protecting these monsters.
“What?!” Nina was shocked to see that her skeleton warriors were ineffective against these monsters.
“Let me try!” Leo approached the nearest monster and swung his sword at it.
Whoosh!
The sword had managed to penetrate the monster, but it wasn’t easy, and it felt like he was chopping wood with a dull axe. It was a weird sensation that he was feeling for the first time.
“These monsters are incredibly tough! Even I am having trouble cutting them down!”
“Then let me try magic!” Nina commanded her skeleton mages to attack the monsters.
The ground shook slightly afterward.
However, when the dust settled and Nina saw the results, she was dumbfounded, as the monsters remained unharmed by the attack.
“Leo, these are Obsidian Ghouls! They’re A-Rank monsters with ridiculous defensive capabilities!” Lilith said to him when she finally recognized these monsters.
“Do they have any weaknesses?” Leo asked her.
“They don’t!”
“Shit…” Leo gritted his teeth.
Suddenly, these Obsidian Ghouls that had been standing still like a statue began moving simultaneously, raising their staffs and wands towards Leo and Nina’s direction.
“They’re going to attack!” Lilith shouted in a panicked voice.
Sure enough, magic circles filled the room the next moment.
Seeing their situation, Nina sighed inwardly, ‘Is this the end for us? It was fun while it lasted, I guess…’
Leo’s brain scrambled for a solution. Then he recalled the artifact he was holding.
“I don’t know what this artifact does, but let’s hope it can save us from this situation!” Leo exclaimed as he poured his mana into the artifact in his grasp.
The orb suddenly radiated a crimson light that filled the whole chamber.
The Obsidian Ghouls trembled when they were basked with this red light, and their movements froze.
Then, semi-transparent crimson chains began appearing on their body.
Leo and Nina stared at the scene before them with wide eyes, almost as if they couldn’t believe what they were seeing.
“What are you doing, Leo?! Hurry up and kill them while they can’t move!” Lilith shouted at him, snapping him out of his daze.
