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[Translator - Hestia]
[Proofreader - Starfall ]
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Chapter 11: Revelation and Trial (2)
‘This is insane…!’
Clang—!
The moment their swords clashed, Adelia instinctively realized it.
She couldn’t win.
No matter what—she couldn’t win.
That monster was on an entirely different level. Several levels above her, in fact.
All she could do was desperately block its attacks.
But even that was growing more difficult with every passing exchange.
“Stay calm... There has to be a way…!”
Adelia grit her teeth hard.
There was no way the Swordmaster would throw her into such a deadly situation without a reason.
She had to hold out. Endure to the very end—and somewhere in the thick of it, she’d find a way forward.
With the insight she gained through this battle, she would reach her next realm of mastery.
“Khugh!”
But no matter how strong her resolve was…
There was only so much the body could do when it refused to follow the mind.
One of the monster’s strikes grazed her shoulder. A sharp pain surged through her, but Adelia forced herself to ignore it and moved to block the next blow—
No, to be exact, she tried to block it.
“Ah.”
Screeech—!
Before she realized it, a greatsword was already right in front of her.
It was too late to dodge or defend.
Sensing her end was near, Adelia clenched her eyes shut.
KWA-A-A-A-BOOM!
An earth-shattering explosion echoed through the cavern.
A deafening sound ripped through the air as violent winds whipped through Adelia’s hair.
And then—everything fell silent.
The monster’s roar stopped cold.
The sound of its sword swinging vanished, too.
“…?”
Sensing something was off, Adelia perked up her ears, focusing every ounce of attention on her hearing.
Drip. Drip.
The sound of droplets falling from stalactites overhead.
Haa, haa—
Her own heavy breathing, rough from exertion.
And then—
Thud.
THUUUUMP—!
The unmistakable sound of something massive collapsing.
“…?”
Adelia slowly opened her tightly shut eyes.
Her vision cleared, and the cavern's surroundings gradually came into view.
“I misjudged this one.”
About five steps ahead, in the exact spot the monster had stood…
A man holding a sword stood in complete stillness.
His eyes, utterly calm, swept the floor before him.
Frozen in place, Adelia slowly turned her gaze to follow his—and what she saw made her breath catch.
“Ah...”
The monster’s massive corpse lay crumpled across the floor.
Its upper and lower body had been cleanly severed.
“Seems like that one was a bit too much for you.”
Shing—
While Adelia stood there in pure shock, mouth agape…
The man casually wiped the blood from his sword and spoke in his usual composed tone.
“So—did you at least learn something from it?”
* * *
Ding!
〔You have defeated the boss of Hidden Dungeon II: Dungard, the Dark City.〕
Peterpan was dead.
The mutilated corpse now lay at my feet.
One of the most complicated bosses in Lost Elder, known for its relentless patterns, had gone down in a single strike—without so much as a twitch.
‘This skill is downright OP…’
【Soul of the Swordmaster】.
This 12-star, mythic-tier skill had power equivalent to an instant-kill cheat.
Just activating it for a mere 0.01 seconds was enough to completely annihilate a level 82 boss. My mind reeled from the absurdity of it.
‘And not even a single drawback. No strain on the body whatsoever.’
Given Loel’s system, this was beyond strange.
I’d said it before—players needed a proper foundation to perform any sort of advanced action.
But what I’d just pulled off was something my current stats—my strength, stamina, and agility—couldn’t possibly support.
By all rights, my bones and muscles should’ve been pulverized from the recoil alone.
And yet, here I stood—completely unscathed.
‘…Could it be that while the skill is active, my physical stats also temporarily skyrocket?’
I mean, it would make sense.
The skill description did say that I’d reach a state of perfection while it was active.
If that included my physical stats, then no wonder I didn’t suffer any backlash from that intense movement.
‘Anyway…’
Shift—
Still turning things over in my head, I glanced back at Adelia.
She was still staring off into space, utterly dazed.
The impact of my strike must’ve rattled her deeply.
‘…Still in shock, huh.’
Well, whatever.
She’d come around eventually. She just needed a moment.
I turned my eyes away and looked back down at Peterpan’s corpse.
I didn’t have the time to worry about Adelia right now. I had something to take care of first—the real reason I came here.
‘There it is.’
Riiip—
I reached into the monster’s insides with my bare hands.
Slimy fluid, blood, and tangled veins clung to my arms as I pulled something out.
Slicing through the mess with the Featherblade, I extracted a dark, ominous-looking crystal—small enough to fit in one hand.
Just then, Adelia finally snapped back to reality and asked, “Th-that’s…?”
“A Trial. Prepared by the Great Elders.”
Sacred Pieces—the scattered remnants left behind by the ancient gods, now stripped of their former power.
To gain that power, I had to prove myself by passing the trials they left behind.
“This is also the most important task given to me in the revelation I received.”
Crack!
Without a moment’s hesitation, I crushed the crystal in my fist.
It shattered to dust, and a crimson energy surged over my body.
I heard the eerie screams of children—and my vision dimmed.
“……”
Then, a cold silence descended.
Ding!
〔You have entered the Trial prepared by the 'Master of the Second Hand and the Split Second.'〕
* * *
The storytelling of Lost Elder was never direct.
Players had to piece together the pasts of NPCs or the origins of different factions purely through scattered clues.
It was, by all definitions, a game designed for the hardcore.
“And among them, Dungard’s abandoned factory holds one of the most gruesome tales.”
The Dark City: Dungard.
A lawless zone where all manner of illegal experiments were conducted.
One day, a deranged mage partnered with the continent’s largest pharmaceutical company—driven by an absurd goal to create an elixir of immortality.
Together, they set up a factory in Dungard and began their human experimentation.
“Hundreds of spirits, and thousands of children… sacrificed for nothing.”
The Tinkerbells, who witnessed the horrifying experiments, were overcome with rage.
Even Peterpan, who once gifted dreams and wonder to children, lost all reason.
Eventually, those who made a pact with “them” for revenge… became monsters—mercilessly slaughtering the adults who had performed the experiments.
『KyaaaAAAAA!』
The corrupted Tinkerbells attacked the factory.
With piercing screams, they destroyed the facility—turning machinery into useless heaps of scrap metal.
All the employees inside the plant were butchered by Peterpan’s massive greatsword.
And so, the abandoned factory of Dungard, left without an owner, became the new lair of the fallen Tinkerbells and Peterpan.
[That’s so cruel.]
“……”
I was the one who had slain Peterpan and the Tinkerbells.
Monsters who had taken vengeance on behalf of innocent children wrongfully killed… and I had struck them down in their place.
[Tinkerbell and Peterpan only gave back what they had suffered... So why did you kill them...?]
At this point, the nature of this “Trial” should be clear.
[We hate you.]
[We hate you.]
[We hate you.]
[We hate you.]
An all-encompassing darkness.
Voices dripping with resentment echoed chaotically from every direction.
Crimson ghosts began to appear one by one.
Soon enough, their sheer numbers turned the pitch-black space completely red.
[…So you’ll pay with your life as well.]
Ding!
〔Trial Initiated〕
So it begins.
This was the true “Trial” of 【Hidden Dungeon II】.
I was now forced to face the vengeful spirits of the victims—the unjustly sacrificed—inside this mental realm.
‘Gotta admit—it’s pretty creepy.’
KYAAAAAA!
The ghosts shrieked as they charged at me.
Their numbers reached into the thousands—it was like a massive crimson avalanche bearing down on me.
‘In the game, you had to dodge each and every one of their attacks.’
Physical attacks wouldn’t work.
And because I had been pulled into a spiritual realm, neither magic nor divine power had any effect.
The only thing a player could do was dodge.
Survive a grueling bullet-hell sequence until the trial ends. That was the only path.
‘Of course…’
━━━━━━━━━━━━
[Passive Effect]
The 'Mental Strength' stat is permanently set to MAX.
━━━━━━━━━━━━
‘…None of their attacks can actually touch me.’
KYAAAA!
One of the spirits grazed my body.
Ordinarily, that would shave off 25% of your total HP, regardless of your defense or vitality stats—a devastating blow.
Even getting grazed three or four times would put you on the brink of death.
‘Didn’t feel a thing.’
But that didn’t apply to me.
All damage dealt in this realm is classified as mental damage.
Which meant, thanks to the passive effect of 【Soul of the Swordmaster】, my MAX mental stat rendered me—
Ding!
〔Your MAX Mental Strength nullifies the vengeful spirits' attacks.〕
—untouchable in this “mental world.”
‘That’s why I came to 【Hidden Dungeon II】 in the first place.’
I had left all the dungeon mobs to Adelia.
Took down the boss, Peterpan, using an active skill.
Now, this follow-up Trial—based on psychic assault—was something I could brute-force using a passive skill.
If you factored in the final reward, this dungeon might as well have been tailor-made for me.
KWWAAAAAAHHH!
The vengeful spirits surged toward me like a storm.
Blood-red whirlwinds surrounded me from all directions.
My ears rang. My clothes and hair whipped wildly in the winds.
My eyelids kept shutting against the gusts, clouding my vision.
‘…This is getting tedious. I’ve held out long enough—surely the master of this Trial will acknowledge me by now?
Having reached that conclusion, I slowly opened my mouth to speak.
“That’s enough. Cheap illusions like these don’t work on me.”
Snap—!
In an instant, everything went silent.
The raging red phantoms vanished in the blink of an eye.
As if none of it had been real in the first place, the cavern returned to the same stillness it held when I first arrived.
[I acknowledge you.]
A voice echoed from all around me the very next moment.
[You are worthy to inherit the ‘Remnant.’]
Fwoooosh—!
Even before the words had fully faded, the darkness lifted and the real world came back into view.
“……”
I looked up.
The underground clearing of the abandoned factory.
Peterpan’s corpse, which had been crumpled at my feet, was now turning to ash—slowly drifting upward.
Starlight peeked through the half-collapsed ceiling, disturbingly beautiful in its stillness.
And then—
Ding!
〔You have cleared the Trial prepared by the ‘Master of the Second Hand and the Split Second.’〕
The familiar system message filled my vision.
〔Reward: Acquired Authority Skill 【Ritardando】〕
Upon seeing that, I smiled brightly.
“Got it.”
The reward I had been chasing all this time—finally in my hands.
* * *
Meanwhile…
“This can’t be real…”
Tremble—
Adelia couldn’t believe her eyes.
Born into the noble Goldheart family, she had been taught everything there was to know about the Elders since she was young.
So she knew—better than anyone—just how unfathomable the man’s feat truly was.
“He just… casually passed the Trial of an Elder…?”
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[Translator - Hestia]
[Proofreader - Starfall ]
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