Chapter 19

Chapter 19

A picture was drawn on the stone slab.

It depicted a woman raising her spear-wielding hand high.

Countless soldiers knelt before her, and around them, monster corpses piled up like mountains.

The woman wore a bizarre mask, one with a sharp beak reminiscent of a hawk.

And on that mask…

‘A hole?’

Dojae approaches closer to examine it closely.

Holes above the beak, where the eyes should be.

Four in total.

All other parts were flat, but only the eye area had deep holes pierced through it.

‘Oh.’

Through various circumstances, Dojae deduced the meaning behind the holes.

The quest and the voice had spoken of trials.

Four holes and four doors visible around them.

The answer was clear.

Something must fit inside that hole at the entrance.

‘Weakling? Foolish? I’ll clear this in an instant.’

Until now, I thought there was no god.

Yet I lived harder than anyone.

This self-proclaimed god who appeared now seemed displeased with Dojae, but it didn’t matter.

No, it only fuels my defiance.

All those years I endured and persevered for recognition.

The target has merely shifted from humans to a mere god, but my heart remains unchanged.

‘I’ll clear this quest and make you my god.’

Thinking that somewhere, someone might be listening to his thoughts, Dojae clenched his fist and entered one of the four doors.

***

About ten minutes had passed since he opened the door and entered.

No matter how he walked, even at a brisk pace, he only found himself in one-way corridors.

‘What? Did I misjudge this?’

From his extensive dungeon-crawling experience, two things usually happened in situations like this.

First, monsters suddenly appear.

That’s easy.

If the monsters are manageable, you fight and rest in cycles to conquer it; if not, you just make a quick getaway.

Since you know the dungeon’s level before entering, the latter isn’t that common.

The second is when there’s a trap.

This is a troublesome situation in many ways.

The path might be maze-like, or various traps could be set up.

In such cases, even the most intuitive treasure hunter couldn’t rely on luck alone; specialized hunters skilled in navigating these areas were essential.

‘No monsters, no traps. What kind of trial is this?’

But since neither was present here, the hunter sensed something was off.

He considered turning back the way he came, but since he’d already ventured quite deep inside and the path continued, he decided to walk on to the end.

As he walked, his mind kept wandering.

‘Now that my younger sibling will be living with us too, should we get an ice water dispenser for our house? But Mr. Choi said they’re expensive. Renting one might be cheaper…’

Do-jae suddenly stopped in his tracks.

A massive hole appeared before his eyes.

It was a rectangular hole, clearly man-made to anyone who saw it.

‘Looks like they want us to cross over here.’

Do-jae perched on the edge of the hole and looked across.

The far end visible in the distance.

The hole was far too wide.

The length looked to be over 500 meters, even by rough estimate.

Moreover, the width between the walls was at least 10 meters.

‘It didn’t seem possible to jump over it.’

Even among hunters with physical abilities beyond common sense, one who could leap 500 meters in a single bound would be hard to find.

If there were any, they’d be hunters with spatial teleportation skills or those capable of flying?

Or perhaps an S-rank Hunter could manage it with their special skills, but for Dojae right now, jumping 50 meters was impossible, let alone 500 meters.

‘There must be a way.’

Even if it was a trial sent by the gods, there had to be a way.

Otherwise, surely they wouldn’t make such an irresponsible demand, asking him to make the impossible possible.

‘First, let’s see how deep it is. Subspace.’

At Dojae’s call, the sub-space appeared.

Dojae pulled out a single water bottle from within.

He tossed it straight into the hole.

Thud-.

1 second, 2 seconds, 3 seconds….

15 seconds, 16 seconds, 17 seconds.

Clang!

The sound of the water bottle hitting the bottom of the hole echoes back.

‘Deep.’

Though I’m no scientist, the sound taking 17 seconds made it clear the hole was incredibly deep.

Deep enough that jumping down would cost more than just one life.

‘Even if I somehow get down there, getting back up is the real problem.’

Suppose you fell wearing golem armor and luckily landed safely.

The real problem would be climbing back up.

As I’d confirmed moments ago, the stones in the walls and floor weren’t ordinary rock.

A normal rock would have caved in with just a light press, but even a full-force punch with my fist only left a thin crack.

He considered digging his fist into the wall to climb back up, but he figured his hand would break before the wall did.

“Hmm.”

After some deliberation, Dojae rummaged through his sub-space.

This time, he pulled out a glass bottle containing slime mucus he’d obtained earlier.

And the rope he’d stashed away during his last attempt.

Usually, loot was tightly bound with rope to prevent it from collapsing, but Dojae, who had a sub-space, didn’t need that, so it was practically a new rope.

“I wonder if it’ll work…”

He untied the rope and formed a loop.

Then, I tied the rope to the bottle containing the slime mucus—specifically, the mucus from a silver slime, known for its exceptional viscosity.

Note: Its viscosity is so extreme that if it gets on your hands, you’ll struggle to remove it, so attach it carefully.

It’s usually stored in an oiled bottle, and true to slime’s nature, it’s vulnerable to fire.

Anyway, Dojae wrapped the rope tightly around the bottle several times.

This way, when the bottle breaks, the mucus, glass shards, and rope will mix together, binding it even more firmly.

“Ugh.”

Dojae stood up from his seat, stretching his arms wide.

He steps back slightly.

Thwack-

He hurls the silver slime mucus bottle toward the opposite side of the hole.

Whoosh-!

Clang-

First attempt failed.

Thrown too high, it shattered against the ceiling before going far.

‘Again.’

Dojae pulled out a fresh slime slime bottle and tied the rope.

He still had plenty of bottles and rope left.

With just a few more tries, he should be able to shatter it at the desired spot.

‘Lower the angle than before.’

This time, he threw it almost vertically.

Second attempt also failed.

The glass bottle, flying fiercely, slowed down and fell to the ground.

It wasn’t so much a matter of force as the bottle being too light.

‘Just a little higher.’

Somewhere between the angles of the first and second attempts.

Do-jae began his third attempt.

Bang!

The glass bottle flew at an angle of about 30 degrees.

It flew in a gentle curve, teetering on the edge of hitting the ceiling.

Then, as its speed gradually slowed, it began to fall downward.

Clang!

“Success!”

With a satisfied expression, Dojae pulls on the rope he’s been holding.

Judging by how it didn’t pull him up even when he tugged hard, it seemed strong enough to support Dojae’s weight.

Zing-

He secured the taut rope to the floor with mucus.

Dojae gripped the rope and began crossing over the hole.

‘It’s… kinda scary…’

Once he actually started crossing, a subtle fear crept up on him.

The pitch-black hole, where not even light penetrated, resembled a quagmire leading straight to hell.

‘Hell and God. How ridiculous.’

He focused only on the path ahead, crossing his arms with all his might until he reached the other side.

Disappointingly, at the end of the passage, barely 3 meters long, stood a solid wall.

‘That’s it.’

Dojae approached the wall.

A mural was painted there too, depicting the same masked woman from the stone tablet.

This time, she wore a mask and fought a gigantic monster unlike any seen before.

The spear tip piercing the monster’s chest was depicted with great dynamism.

Particularly vivid was one of the mask’s four eyes, inlaid with a piece that emitted a subtle jade-like glow.

Thud-

Dojae removed the embedded piece.

The eye-shaped fragment that fit in his palm was a perfectly spherical gem encased in bronze.

‘Does this remind you of the Eye of the Egyptian gods?’

The Eye of Horus, often seen in movies and comics.

Horus is also a falcon-headed god, and the woman in the painting wore a falcon mask, so that’s probably why it felt similar.

‘I should remember this well.’

Doja etched the painting into his memory once more.

Though the missing piece leaves a sense of emptiness, this painting…

It seems like a painting with a story behind it.

‘First trial cleared.’

Whatever the hole’s intent was, he succeeded in acquiring the fragment anyway.

Dojae believed that as long as you reach Seoul, it doesn’t matter which path you take; getting the right answer was more important than understanding the creator’s intent.

***

The pottery shards emerged the same way they had entered.

He slips the fragment into the hole in the stone slab.

The perfect fit in both size and depth gave him a strange sense of satisfaction.

Thud.

The stone slab vibrates slightly.

Light flowed out from the fragment and spread across the entire stone slab, much like human blood vessels.

‘I didn’t expect congratulations, but silence is telling.’

Even after acquiring the first piece, no voice was heard.

Does this mean it’s nothing special?

“Damn, how aloof.”

Dojae muttered as he stared at the stone slab, then headed for the next door.

Somehow, the woman in the stone tablet seemed like the owner of the voice.

‘This time, I’ll try going this way.’

He chose the next entrance just as thoughtlessly as the first.

There was no mention or hint about the order of entering the doors, and if things went wrong, he could always come back out, so he entered without much thought.

Gugugung-!

Had he taken about ten steps inside?

Suddenly, the door descended from above, sealing the entrance shut.

Then, in an instant, the surroundings plunged into darkness.

Not just dim, but complete darkness.

Swoosh-.

In the darkness, he sensed something moving.

Dojae quickly casts the Golem Armor spell.

Clank!

There are no stones inside the temple.

Then where did it come from?

Right from the sub-space.

Since he never knew when or where he might need to use the Golem Armor skill, he always carried a sufficient supply of stones stored within his sub-space.

Thud-.

Something invisible suddenly attacked Dojae.

Thanks to the Golem Armor, it didn’t cause major damage, but it was a sharp attack.

‘Where is it!’

Doja instinctively assumed a defensive stance and strained his ears.

Seeing nothing, he couldn’t readily launch a counterattack.

Fortunately, as Dojae remained still, the opponent also stayed motionless.

‘Monster? Human? No, is it even alive? What is it?’

Do-jae wondered if the enemy might not even be a living creature.

It was too quiet to be a living creature like a monster or a person.

There was no breathing sound that should have been there, no noise from even the slightest movement.

And it was a movement he recognized, but not from a living thing.

A golem came to mind.

‘This could go on forever.’

No matter what it was, just standing there facing each other would only drag things out.

Right now, the best course is to charge head-on, break through the enemy’s attack, and find the fragment.

Swish-.

Thud-!

Dojae leapt to catch the enemy off guard.

Thud-.

“Ugh.”

But an enemy appearing from somewhere pushes Dojae down.

And as their bodies touched, a faint spark revealed the enemy’s identity.

‘Me?’

A golem identical in form to himself.

Doja clenched his teeth.