After rescuing Circe, Ex explained everything that had happened.
"You're telling me this is one of the Hero's Trials?"
Circe had difficulty believing what Ex was telling her.
She had no choice but to believe him in the end, but the whole thing was so completely out of the blue that her reaction was only natural.
Who could have known that, after having the bad luck to get caught up in a teleportation, they would arrive at a Hero's Trial of all places?
"It's getting to the point where I'm a little scared to go anywhere with you. You're like a storm that brings disaster wherever it goes."
"You think this is the life I wanted…?"
His Luck was 0, so misfortune was something he had to suffer through all the time.
Still, having Circe get caught up in this with him was a stroke of luck in one respect: it made explaining the situation much easier.
It was outrageously unfair, though, that he could suffer a disaster like this and find himself reduced to considering even that lucky….
As Ex was sighing over it, Circe was the first to speak.
"So what are you going to do now?"
"First, we should look around and see if anyone else got caught up in it."
The first person who came to mind was Lola.
When the teleportation device had activated, Lola had been the one closest to it, after all.
If Lola had been caught up in it and brought here, though, fierce explosions should have been ringing out continuously. It was strange that things had remained quiet so far.
There was no way Lola would have been helplessly defeated by skeletons, so there was also a good chance that she hadn't been caught in the teleportation at all.
"Those nobles have some nerve. Going after an Imperial Prince right inside the academy? Are they that desperate to have their entire houses wiped out?"
"They're certainly obsessed with getting their hands on power. Once we're out of here, I'll have to discuss what to do about them with His Highness Darius."
"What is there left to discuss? Find every last one of the people who did this and wipe out their houses. Even if you try to defend the nobles, that isn't going to resolve this. This was an attempt to assassinate a member of the imperial family."
Circe spoke with a stern voice, making her point clear and firm.
"Watching you, I get the feeling you're afraid of having anyone connected to you die. But you can't keep saving absolutely everyone forever. Sometimes, the only way something can end is for someone to die."
Ex caught his breath.
He knew that.
An ending where everyone survived, and everyone became a good person….
There was no happy ending like that in the novel Ex knew.
Ex only had to recall the scenario in which the Empire was destroyed. Countless people had died, and Elia had been among them.
He had to save them. He knew that wanting to do so was asking for too much.
"It isn't as easy as it sounds…."
"Take your time and think about it. I'm not going to tell you to make up your mind to kill people overnight. You're still just a student, so of course you're going to struggle with this. For now, I'm only warning you ahead of time."
The person inside this body wasn't a student, though.
Their conversation returned to the question of how to clear the dungeon.
"Unfortunately, I never went through this trial in my previous life, either. That means you're the only one here who knows this place well."
"There isn't much more to it than what I told you earlier. We gather troops and take the fortress at the end of the dungeon. There is no other way for us to get out of here."
Ex had already made a circuit of the area and looked for a path leading outside. But, just as the setting dictated that no one could leave once they had entered, there was no entrance or exit to be found anywhere.
He had long since given up any hope of finding a clever shortcut out.
"There are two problems we need to deal with urgently. The first is food, and the second is the hundred-man units."
To obtain food, they had to get the treasure chests protected by the guardians. The Command Flags were inside those chests, too. It was a step they would have to go through, no matter what.
"And I intend to avoid the hundred-man units whenever possible. There isn't much to gain from defeating them. Unless we could pick out and kill only the officers…."
"Avoiding unnecessary fights is the right thing to do. But you said those units are constantly out on patrol. The more troops we have, the harder it'll be to avoid them. We need to be ready for a fight."
"Hmm…."
That was the part Ex was most worried about.
Until now, their force had been small enough that they could run away. It was difficult to imagine that they would be able to keep doing that in the future.
What other means did he have available to him?
Simply knowing the original novel didn't give him enough information.
First, he needed to gather as much information as he could.
"Let's look around for now. We should see what's over by the guardians, too."
"I was fighting right up until you got here, and I'm out of mana. I'll be relying on you for a little while."
Circe and Ex walked on together.
Whether it was fortunate or unfortunate, they encountered no battles for some time as they examined their surroundings.
Perhaps that was because Ex and Circe had already fought everything that came their way.
"If you clear this dungeon, that means what I think it means, doesn't it?"
Circe spoke as they walked along.
"What do you mean?"
"You said this was a Hero's Trial. If you clear it, you'll receive the Hero's power, won't you? You are a Hero, after all."
"…That's a possibility I'd rather not think about."
"Why? Wouldn't getting more power be a good thing?"
At that question, Ex's expression turned uneasy.
"Because Leon needs to acquire all of the Hero's power. Clearing every Hero's Trial is one of the conditions for defeating the Demon King. I wanted to keep at least that part free of any unexpected changes."
If Ex cleared a Hero's Trial, Leon might not be able to obtain its power. And if that happened, the attempt to defeat the Demon King would fail.
Even if Ex successfully stopped every other doomsday scenario, none of it would matter if he failed at the very end. That was something he absolutely wanted to avoid.
"Besides, in the future I saw, the rewards from the Hero's Trials worked by drawing out a person's 'latent abilities.' If they gave me a weapon or an artifact, I could at least hand it over to Leon. But that isn't how it works…."
"You never know. Your latent abilities might turn out to be greater than you could imagine. This could be a good opportunity for you to defeat the Demon King as the Hero yourself."
"Some joke that is…."
Ex would rather die than fight the Demon King.
The Demon King was the very concept of destruction, capable of annihilating heaven and earth. There was no idiot other than Leon who would throw himself at such a being with everything he had.
If Ex tried to do something like that himself, he was certain that he would do nothing but tremble, overcome by an overwhelming terror.
"Anyway…. I'm still trying to decide what to do. I wish there were a way to clear the dungeon without accepting the reward…."
"You really do have a rough life."
"I'd like an easy life, too."
As they continued talking, they discovered an enormous room in the middle of the labyrinth.
Inside it was what they had been looking for.
"There's a treasure chest over there."
"And there's the guardian protecting it."
The room was so vast that several buildings could have fit inside. A room that large might have seemed empty if all it held was a single object sitting by itself. But this room didn't feel empty at all.
An overwhelming presence weighed heavily on the air throughout the entire room. That presence was pouring out of the creature standing in its center.
"…It's bigger than I expected."
The sheer size of the stone statue was enough to make Ex feel overwhelmed. It was roughly the size of a two-story house.
With a vicious-looking face, the statue stood firmly in place, holding an enormous stone sword even bigger than its own body.
Ex didn't need to know anything more about it to be certain that, if that stone sword hit him, there wouldn't be enough of him left to pick up.
Seeing it, Circe also frowned as she spoke.
"It looks like it'll be hard for just the two of us to take that down."
"Can you analyze it or something? If it's a statue, it should be something like a golem. Could you interfere with its mana and disable it, like you did last time?"
"If I had to classify that statue, I'd call it undead, like the skeletons. Disabling a naturally formed mana life-form through interference is almost impossible. If I try and put it on its guard, we'll only lose our chance to catch it by surprise."
Well, of course it wasn't going to be that easy to solve.
An opponent of that level would require someone at least as strong as Leon to take it on.
So they really had no choice but to sacrifice troops after all?
As Ex was slowly coming to that conclusion, his gaze settled on something. The ring on Circe's finger.
Paison's Leap….
It was an artifact equipped with Blink, a short-range teleportation spell.
The instant he saw it, an idea flashed through his mind.
"Miss Circe, could you lend me Paison's Leap?"
"What? No! Isn't it a bit much to give me something and then take it back?"
"I'll return it. There's something I want to try."
"Something you want to try? What is it?"
Ex told her what he had in mind.
As Circe listened, her face rapidly twisted into a grimace.
"Wouldn't it be better to just send the troops in to deal with it? That's too dangerous. There's no guarantee everything will go the way you want it to."
"We're stuck whichever way we turn, so we might as well take a gamble. If anything goes wrong, I'll run away immediately. Don't worry."
"You can't tell me not to worry when you're the one making me worry…."
With a sigh, Circe handed over Paison's Leap. Judging by the way she hesitated, she was quite attached to it.
It was certainly a good artifact, after all.
After receiving Paison's Leap, Ex channeled mana into it to check how it worked.
First, he would use the spell a few times to learn firsthand how it worked. He had no desire to make some stupid mistake and have part of his body cut off.
"I'll help you."
With Circe's help, Ex tried Blink a few times and became accustomed to it. He had only heard about the spell before. Now that he could experience its incredible performance for himself, he couldn't help marveling at it.
Items of this kind really were all ridiculously overpowered.
He was ready.
For the first time in a while, Ex used Demonization.
His eyes changed to resemble a demon's, and black smoke began seeping from his entire body, a little at a time.
"It still makes me uncomfortable to see that."
Circe, who stood beside him, voiced her complaint. Ex merely shrugged once, as if to ask what else he could do.
There was nothing to be done about the instinctive, physical revulsion toward demons as a race, or the sense of how alien they were. Ex accepted that as simply the way things were.
Recalling the sensation of Blink in his mind, Ex held the Dragon Sword and moved forward.
He wrapped his entire body in the demonic power that diminished his presence and approached the statue cautiously.
If it was a naturally formed mana life-form like the skeleton soldiers, it should function in a similar way, too. This guardian only activated when someone was in the room in the first place.
The distance between them gradually narrowed. Even after Ex had come quite close, the guardian statue did not move.
If only he could keep moving where its senses couldn't reach him….
At a distance of about ten steps, Ex nervously watched for any movement from the guardian. If he noticed even the slightest sign, he intended to flee at once.
Even now, the guardian did nothing but stand motionless.
Ex's gaze passed beyond the guardian to look behind it.
There was the treasure chest.
The iron chest, which was about as large as a person's torso, looked heavy and solid, just as the original novel had described it.
Now he just had to do this quickly and get out…!
Without hesitating, Ex channeled mana into Paison's Leap.
In response to that mana, the ring activated the spell stored within it.
For an instant, Ex's figure shone with light and seemed to contract. Then he appeared somewhere else.
In the space of a moment, Ex had appeared directly in front of the treasure chest.
Now all he had to do was take this and run…!
He would obtain the treasure chest intact without having to fight at all.
It was a method only Ex could use, because he could conceal his presence with demonic power.
He would get as close as possible, then steal only the treasure chest.
It would take a fair amount of mana to Blink with the treasure chest, but he still had more than enough left for that.
If he succeeded, he could do the same thing in the other guardians' rooms. All he would have to do was steal their treasure chests, too.
This thing really was heavy…!
The treasure chest was heavier than Ex had expected, and for a moment he was thrown off.
"Ex! Get out of there, now!!"
Circe's warning came from behind him.
When he glanced behind him, what Ex saw filled him with horror.
The statue, as enormous as a building, was slowly rising up and glaring toward the treasure chest.
Its eyes blazed with a savage light as it raised its gigantic stone sword, intent on slaughtering the thief who had dared to steal its treasure.
If Ex allowed even one blow to land, he would be saying farewell to the world as ground meat, right along with the treasure chest.
So even touching the treasure chest was enough to wake it…!
That situation had never come up in the original novel, so he had known nothing about it.
He didn't have time now to lament finding out so late.
Ex hurriedly prepared to Blink.
The moment he channeled mana into Paison's Leap, he realized there was a problem.
It was consuming more mana than he had expected…!
The treasure chest was heavier than he had ever imagined, and Blink required more mana to match that additional weight.
In the brief opening that created, the statue mercilessly brought its stone sword down.
If he let go of the treasure chest, he could escape on his own. But that would mean losing all the supplies they needed.
So, right now, he would take the treasure chest with him, no matter what it took.
The moment he resolved to do so, something tore through the air and exploded against the statue's back in a violent blast.
Caught by the sudden attack, the statue lurched badly off balance.
The path of the stone sword twisted wildly as it fell.
With a deafening crash, the blade struck the floor beside Ex instead of hitting him. The sheer force of the sword coming down sent fragments flying in every direction and filled the room with the roar of the impact.
"Get out of there, now!!"
While Ex was still dazed by the shock, Circe shouted at him.
Coming back to his senses, Ex finished preparing Blink.
He activated Blink without hesitation and teleported together with the treasure chest. The place he arrived was the very spot from which he had made his first jump.
He hadn't gotten very far…!
With no other choice, Ex struggled to lift the treasure chest.
Thanks to the hellish training he underwent every day, he was confident in his muscular strength.
As he ran at full speed with the treasure chest in his arms, heavy, pounding footsteps drew steadily closer behind him.
The statue, shaped like a monstrous fiend, was chasing him.
"Miss Circe! Let's get out of here!!"
"You don't have to tell me!"
Until Ex reached her, Circe poured spells at the statue, doing what she could to slow its ponderous advance, even if only a little.
Thanks to her, Ex was able to get out of the guardian's room.
Only after they had gotten far away from the entrance did the two of them feel safe enough to relax.
The entrance was smaller than the guardian, so it was impossible for the statue to get through it.
Now that they had left the room, their safety was assured.
"At this point, it shouldn't follow us any farther…."
"Are you sure? The way it was acting, I thought it would chase us to the ends of hell."
"Even so, surely it wouldn't try to leave its room…"
An ominous, thunderous impact from the guardian's room cut Ex off.
It didn't stop at a single impact. More heavy crashes continued to ring out, one after another.
There was no need for a complicated explanation of what that meant.
Contrary to what Ex had expected, the guardian was trying to get out of its room. It was smashing apart the narrow entrance, trying to bring it down.
"Oh, come on! This is going to drive me crazy…!"
Ex quickly opened the treasure chest and scattered its contents all over the floor. Circe was appalled by his strange behavior.
"Hey! What are you doing?"
"It seems to be trying to get its treasure chest back, so we'll give it back. We'll keep what's inside, though. All of you, pick up everything on the floor! Take as much as you can carry!"
The skeleton soldiers quickly obeyed his orders and picked up the items. There were so many soldiers that everything was cleared away in an instant.
Ex pointed to a skeleton whose hands were empty and gave it an order.
"Take this treasure chest and run that way! Hurry!"
With its bones clattering, the skeleton picked up the empty treasure chest and quickly ran off down an unoccupied corridor.
Ex also left the area with Circe, and the two of them hid themselves.
At the same moment, the entrance to the guardian's room shattered with an enormous crash, leaving it utterly wrecked.
The guardian radiated a savage desire to kill in every direction. After looking around, it charged off somewhere with heavy, thudding strides.
It was heading toward the skeleton Ex had sent away with the treasure chest.
Fortunately, the guardian was pursuing the treasure chest itself, rather than its contents.
"We made it…."
"If it's like this every time, we'll run out of lives no matter how many we have…."
And that was how the two of them secured their supplies.
Food, a Command Flag, and even some special items.
Thanks to those supplies, they could now move on to the next part of the plan.
–TL Notes–
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