Chapter 233
Simon passed through the open iron gate and moved toward the entrance of the dungeon.
Before long, he came upon a narrow, elongated corridor. There were no traces of human passage, nor any presence of Darkness.
Only the musty underground stench pricked at his nose. The overall darkness made it hard to see far ahead, but nearby objects were clearly visible.
Simon carefully stepped forward.
Thunk.
A firing sound echoed from far away. Simon stopped walking and stared straight ahead.
What was flying toward him was a pure white arrow.
‘A holy arrow?’
At that moment, Feer’s voice came through.
[It’s more powerful than an ordinary holy arrow. Don’t block it, dodge it!]
Following Feer’s command, Simon twisted his head.
A flash of pure white light grazed past his eye. From the tip to the tail, the arrow was vividly visible.
The arrow that passed him embedded itself in the wall behind. Cracking sounds followed as the wall split—clearly, the impact was tremendous.
‘I got a feel for it.’
[Kuhuhu! If you've got the hang of it, charge in with confidence!]
Simon smirked and began sprinting forward. This time—thunk, thunk, thunk—three shots fired in succession.
‘The first shot is just like before!’
He tilted his head to dodge the upper arrow, immediately twisted his body sideways to avoid the mid-level one, and finally raised his leg to evade the low one.
Straightening himself again, Simon’s eyes turned serious.
‘They’re just firing at me even though I didn’t trigger any trap. Guess it’s not a trap disarming test.’
As he thought that and took another step, a clicking sound came from the floor, trap activated.
Without hesitation, Simon stepped on Darkness and leapt upward.
From the floor he’d just stepped on, a bunch of metal spears shot up. The tips were coated with a violet liquid.
[Paralysis poison! Get stabbed, and your body stiffens in under a minute. Then you’ll get hit by the arrows!]
‘And I don’t even have the Keyzen uniform right now, so I can’t afford even a graze.’
Even in mid-air, he couldn’t relax.
The walls detected Simon’s descent. As lights flashed, magic circles formed.
‘Tch!’
He couldn’t afford to trigger another trap.
Simon calmly opened the subspace and pulled out the long spear he had recently purchased. Planting it into the floor, he pole-vaulted across.
Fwoooosh!
Flames erupted from the walls. The scorching heat made his face sting. As Simon landed, sweating heavily—
Click. Tick.
The block beneath his feet sank slightly.
‘Just how many traps are there?’
Simon dashed forward without pause. Spears shot up from the floor, and arrows continued to fly in from the front.
Click.
Tick.
Click-click.
Tick.
With each step, he triggered a trap. There were more trap blocks than safe ones.
At this rate—
‘It’s faster to just dodge everything rather than waste time looking for patterns!’
Simon kicked off the floor and leapt. He weaved through rising traps and flying hazards with ease.
[Boy! From above!]
Simon instantly flattened his body to the floor like a squid.
Whoooosh!
A log studded with spikes sliced through the air just above him.
As the log swung like a pendulum to its furthest point, Simon sprang up and bolted forward.
Click.
Tick.
Click.
Traps triggered in rapid succession.
‘Ugh, isn’t this a bit too much?’
Simon instinctively dodged the incoming holy arrows.
Now he was crossing red lines that triggered traps upon contact, and one brushed against his leg.
Ssssssssshhk!
Poisonous mist sprayed from the ceiling, blanketing the surroundings in a dense fog.
Simon immediately halted, summoned a mask magic circle from his Toxicology class, and placed it over his mouth. Then he took out a flat cotton pad from subspace and held it to the mist. The cotton discolored to brown, revealing toxic properties.
‘Red Mushroom spore poison. Antidote is Myungha Grass.’
It was a poison he had memorized to death in Toxicology class.
Since he had plenty of Myungha Grass for practice, Simon immediately pulled out two potion bottles from subspace.
‘Feer! I need to brew the antidote, watch the front for me!’
[Got it!]
By now, Simon had reached a level where he could dodge arrows just by hearing the sound and listening to Feer’s guidance.
Dodging arrows in place, he set the bottles down, poured solvent over the Myungha Grass, and drank it straight. Then, removing the mask magic circle, he confidently stepped into the poisonous fog.
His throat and skin tingled, but only just.
[Kuhuhu! So you weren’t dozing off in Toxicology after all!]
‘Of course not.’
He loved getting to use what he learned in class.
At the same time, he briefly thought—if he fully mastered the poison-eating course from Belya, wouldn’t even Red Mushroom poison be tolerable without an antidote?
‘I’m almost there!’
Ahead, he could finally see the red button that led to the next chamber.
He wanted to make it there without a single hit, not letting his guard down even for a second.
Simon pulled out two skeletons from subspace. They disassembled and clung to his legs, forming Bone Boots.
‘Alright, deep breath.’
He waited for another volley, then stepped on Darkness and sprinted forward the moment he dodged.
A flash from the wall signaled trap activation, and the floor clicked beneath him again.
Simon kept running. Toward the end, the difficulty spiked—holy blades fired in a wild frenzy—but he wasn’t afraid of holiness in the slightest.
He just had to avoid being noticed by those watching, so he calmly traced the trajectory and dodged.
Suddenly, a wall shot up from the floor, blocking his path.
Rrrrrrrrrr!
The way ahead was walled off, and behind him came the thunderous rolling of something massive. A boulder trap, no doubt.
[Kahahaha! You’re gonna be squashed if you don’t hurry!]
Simon spun in front of the wall, then slammed into it with a twisting kick, enhanced by the Bone Boots.
CRAAACK!
The wall shattered easily, and he leapt through the opening.
[Fire trap dead ahead!]
“Roger!”
Simon twisted through the rushing fire traps, planted his hands on the floor, and kicked both legs upward.
In that pose, he launched both feet forward. The Bone Boots transformed back into skeletons and sprinted ahead.
10 meters to the button.
Right here.
‘Pierce it!’
Simon issued an Absolute Order. The two skeletons used Dash, barreled through the traps, and stabbed the button with their swords.
Vrrrrrrrrrrrrr—
All the traps deactivated. The boulder rolling behind shattered as its internal explosives detonated.
Simon pressed his hands to the floor and exhaled sharply.
Rrrrrrrr!
The wall split to the left and right, and the door leading to the next stage began to open.
* * *
“Woooooooah!!”
The audience erupted into thunderous cheers after witnessing Simon’s performance.
While other students hesitated at the incoming holy arrows, or cautiously took their time analyzing the trap patterns, the sight of the boy known as Special Admission No. 1 just sprinting through, triggering every trap along the way, left a lasting impression.
“That’s right! Him! That’s the friend I treasure!”
Belya, today’s guest commentator, pounded the table and shouted excitedly.
Seizing the chance for more airtime, the host quickly jumped in.
“He even brewed an antidote on the spot earlier! Looks like he’s been studying hard in Toxicology!”
“Puhaha! As if! That punk got a 60 on the Toxicology midterm! He’s a total blockhead when it comes to studying!”
As Belya burst into laughter, the host joined in cheerfully and asked,
“Then what about Simon caught your attention, Professor of Toxicology?”
“At first, well, it was just because of the ‘Special Admission No. 1’ title. I wanted to scout him as my personal disciple. But the more I see him, the more I like him. He’s in the same line of work as me.”
You and him?
The words rose to the host’s throat, but he held back professionally and asked,
“That calm-looking young man, you say?”
“Exactly! He’s got a wild instinct! Especially, above all else!”
Belya grinned, flashing her triangular teeth.
“He’s f***ing unique, isn’t he!”
* * *
Simon immediately took on the second-stage trial.
Compared to the first stage, the overall difficulty was clearly ramped up. The passageways were larger and wider, and in turn, the variety of traps increased.
Most importantly, the traps didn’t wait to be triggered. They just activated at random with no warning.
Holy arrows, spears erupting from the floor, fire shooting from the walls.
On top of that, holy whips lashed around, holy spears dropped from the ceiling, and sometimes even Exorcism activated.
‘Even here, it’s all holy stuff.’
Simon clicked his tongue at Keyzen’s cruelty, poking at a necromancer’s fear of holiness even in a trial like this.
He rolled like mad, spun like a windmill, ran across the ceiling. Once he entered, there was no turning back.
And acting like he was in pain from being hit by holiness, was another hassle.
When Simon charged through the barrage of holy arrows, the audience, watching the footage of arrows piercing into him, let out real-time gasps of pity.
At the same time, they praised Simon’s indomitable spirit, though the truth was—Simon was just fine.
“Huff, huff.”
In the end, he made it through. Because he couldn’t stop to rest, he actually cleared it faster than the first stage.
‘…Ugh, some of those were real arrows.’
Some of the arrows were imbued with actual holiness. Those ones hurt enough to make his lips tremble.
Simon squeezed his eyes shut and grabbed the arrow deeply embedded in his thigh.
“Hngh!”
Then he pulled with all his strength. His thigh screamed and burned with blinding pain.
“Augh!”
It was buried far deeper than expected. The pain spread across his entire thigh, making it feel like it was on fire.
Simon eventually let go and gasped for breath.
It hurt so bad that tears welled up in his eyes. Pulling it out was worse than being shot.
[Of course it won’t come out if you try brute force!]
Feer scolded him.
[You can use Darkness Enchant, right?]
‘Ah, yes. I’m not as good as Dick, but I know the basics.’
[Infuse a small amount of Darkness and coat only the surface of the arrow in Darkness. Then pull it out.]
Simon did exactly as Feer instructed. Once coated with Darkness, the arrow slipped out smoothly.
He poured a potion over the wound to heal it. The pain nearly made him faint.
Clink.
If it weren’t a trial, he could’ve just used holiness to heal himself completely, but instead, Simon swallowed his regret and poured out another recovery potion.
Only now did the pain subside a little. Simon turned to face the next challenge, visible through the opened wall.
Stage three had an even larger passageway. And there was nothing, just a smooth surface. The bricks and walls were all made of a slick material.
At the end of the corridor, a red buzzer was visible.
But there were no visible elements where traps could be set.
Simon first took out two skeletons from subspace and sent them ahead. The skeletons walked forward without a hint of caution.
After only a few steps—
KWAKWAKWAKWAKWAKWAKWAK!
A storm of weapons erupted from the ceiling. The rain of weapons poured down like a monsoon, burying the skeletons completely in an instant.
[Kahahaha! Now that’s no joke!]
“Seriously.”
Simon opened his subspace with a tense face.
What he took out was a Golem Core. Setting it down on the ground, Simon rolled up his sleeves.
“No choice now. I’ll summon a Blood Golem here.”
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