novelraw Chapter 17
Chapter 17
Chapter 17
Feyr took a step back and activated the Serpent Sense once more.
‘What is it? There's clearly nothing here.’
He checked again, but there was nothing at the spot where he had just stepped.
Unable to make sense of the situation, Feyr replayed the scene in his mind.
A Mechanism that had activated in a place with nothing there.
A strange sound that had come from beneath his feet.
Could it be......
‘A Formation Array?’
That would explain what had just happened.
Unlike a Mechanism, a Formation Array has no physical form.
It is a kind of snare that only reveals itself—spreading a magic circle—at the moment it activates.
Having no physical form, it also produces no vibration, which is why it hadn't been caught by the Serpent Sense.
‘I figured there might be one since there were Mechanisms here, but.......’
To think there actually was one.
Still, this was within the range he had anticipated.
Even though it couldn't be seen, it wasn't enough to pose a serious problem.
Compared to what he had faced in his past life, this was utterly trivial.
After briefly reflecting on the past, Feyr pushed aside his stray thoughts and pressed forward once more.
As Feyr walked ahead, the countless Formation Arrays hidden around him began activating one by one.
Simultaneously, several arrows came flying at him from all directions.
Fwip-fwip-fwip-fwip!
As a hail of arrows surged from every direction, Feyr arched his back and leapt backward, dodging the onslaught.
Once the barrage had passed, the floor where Feyr had been standing looked like a cactus.
At the sight, Feyr clicked his tongue.
‘It would be convenient to have even a simple bladed weapon.’
Wait—bladed?
At that, Feyr spotted the arrows embedded in the floor and grinned.
‘If there's nothing useful on hand, just pick something up and use it.’
Thinking that, he yanked one of the arrows out of the floor.
Using an arrow as a weapon was a stretch, but it was still better than nothing.
If he kept doing nothing but dodge, he wouldn't make it through within the 10-minute time limit.
Feyr then started moving again.
And then—
Wuuumm!
As if welcoming him, light spread from beneath his feet once more and a Formation Array activated.
Watching the Formation Arrays appear at every spot he stepped, Feyr clicked his tongue for a moment as though annoyed.
"Tch."
Just as before, a torrent of rushing arrows.
But this time, he didn't dodge—he advanced.
If he kept retreating every time arrows flew at him, he would never get the Token.
And then, the moment the arrow barrage and Feyr drew close—
Thwack! Crack-crack! Thwack!
Feyr knocked away every incoming arrow using the arrow he held.
The deflected arrows fell limply to the floor, and not a single one of the endless rain managed to reach Feyr.
The barrage continued until Feyr reached the far end of the wall, leaving countless arrows embedded in the floor to form a path in its wake.
Reaching the end of that path, Feyr snatched the Token hanging right before him.
‘That's 1.’
2 Tokens remained.
If the level of Formation Arrays stayed like this all the way to the end, it seemed he could collect all 3 Tokens without difficulty.
Feyr hooked the Token he had obtained onto his waist and looked toward where the next Token would be.
The direction he needed to head this time was toward the far end of the Exam Room.
Roughly half again the distance compared to where the first Token had been.
It was quite a long way to cover at the leisurely pace from before.
‘I'll need to move faster.’
There wasn't enough time to run the exam at a relaxed pace.
The time allotted to me right now is only 10 minutes.
It had taken about 3 minutes to obtain 1 Token just now, so he couldn't say he had time to spare.
Feyr set aside his thoughts and began picking up speed.
As he advanced once again, a rain of arrows came, as expected.
Only this time, arrows weren't the only thing.
Shwiiishhh!
A great vibration felt alongside the sound of something tearing through the air.
Invisible, but unmistakably a spear.
Perceiving the spear, Feyr twisted his body quickly and dodged the incoming projectile.
Kraang!
A spear that slammed into the wall with a thunderous boom.
Just from the sound of it burying into the wall, it was clear the spear was tremendously heavy.
At the absurd sight, Feyr let out a dumbfounded laugh.
Right.
It was supposed to be a Skip Exam—this much was only to be expected.
Thinking that, Feyr dropped the arrow he had been holding to the floor.
‘This thing is useless now.’
If that sort of thing kept coming at him, a flimsy arrow like this was as good as nothing.
So then—now what?
He didn't have enough time to advance cautiously, and his armament wasn't sufficient to knock projectiles aside while pressing forward.
The only thing remotely useful was the spear that had come flying at him just a moment ago.
But even that couldn't be handled freely with his current physical capabilities.
‘If I use Mana I could probably manage it, but.......’
If at all possible, he wanted to conserve it for the last Token.
But with no other option available, there was nothing to be done.
Reluctantly, Feyr clicked his tongue and began channeling Mana throughout his entire body.
As Mana spread through his body, Feyr immediately pulled out the spear embedded in the wall.
Thunk!
The spear was just as heavy as he had expected.
Not only was the spearhead iron—the entire shaft was a solid lump of metal, so of course it was heavy.
The fundamental nature of this exam was to dodge traps in the dark, not to break through them.
That must be why the means to break through the traps had been obstructed in this way.
Using an arrow or relying on Mana to wield a heavy spear were things only possible because it was Feyr.
Even so, he wasn't satisfied with himself.
‘Once the exam is over, I'll need to build up my strength first.’
To think he'd have to use Mana just because he couldn't freely handle a lump of metal like this.
If it were his past life, he would have wielded something several times this weight like a toy.
Feyr felt anew that the road ahead of him was still long.
He then swung the spear several times to get used to its weight before turning his gaze toward the Token.
‘Alright, shall I go at it again.’
Having prepared himself, Feyr began pressing forward again, and Formation Arrays activated here and there.
Unlike when he had gone for the first Token, all manner of things came flying.
Everything from arrows, to spears, to large boulders, and poison-coated throwing needles.
Truly all kinds of things came at him.
Even so, Feyr responded to every incoming projectile with exactly the right move at exactly the right moment.
Arrows were knocked aside, spears were glanced off, and boulders and throwing needles were all dodged with minimal movement.
Having thus reached the far end of the Exam Room—
He was able to obtain the 2nd Token.
‘That makes 2.’
Only the last 1 remained.
But as for that last one......
‘Of all places, it has to be on the ceiling.’
The Token being hung from the ceiling wasn't a huge problem in itself.
But it was certainly quite a nuisance.
‘If I could have my way, I'd just throw this thing and knock it down.’
Feyr thought, looking at the spear in his hand.
But that was out of the question when he couldn't even properly handle the spear's weight as things stood.
One wrong move and the Token could shatter.
Even if it was somewhat troublesome, there was no choice but to retrieve it in person.
‘So this is why I wanted to conserve Mana...... Tch.’
The only way to reach the ceiling from here was to concentrate Mana into his legs and leap.
As detected by the Serpent Sense, the ceiling was roughly 5 meters high—a considerable height to leap from here.
‘Still, I shouldn't run short on Mana.’
Thanks to having climbed to 3-Star fairly quickly, he wasn't short on Mana for something like this.
His physical capabilities were simply lacking.
To push his body beyond its limits in his current state, he desperately needed the help of Mana like this.
‘Even if Mana is almighty, to have to rely on it in every single area like this.’
Sure enough, once he got back, he'd have to build up his physical abilities first.
He'd have to do it anyway in order to reach 4-Star.
Feyr pushed those thoughts aside and slowly began gathering Mana into his legs.
Sssss——!
The 3-Star Mana began flowing fully into Feyr's legs.
In his Mana-concentrated legs, he felt a superhuman strength.
And then, the moment Feyr lowered his body and loaded both legs fully with Mana—
Pak!
He kicked off the ground and leapt.
Soaring up as though taking flight, Feyr reached his hand toward the Token.
But at that moment—
Though he couldn't see it, he distinctly sensed Mana condensing at close range.
Magic had activated from a hidden Formation Array.
"What the——"
Fwwwhoooosh——!
Before Feyr even finished speaking, the magic activated and Dreadfire erupted upward.
And Feyr, who had been right in front of it......
"Tch...... that was close......."
Was completely unharmed.
At the very last moment before the magic activated, he had barely managed to drive the spear he was holding into the ceiling, using it to evade the flames.
‘I had my suspicions, but you actually put a Formation Array on the ceiling?’
Whoever designed this place was truly out of their mind.
The flames then slowly began to die down, and once the fire had fully disappeared, Feyr snatched the Token that had been hanging from the ceiling.
However, the instant he pulled on the Token, an ominous sound reached his ears.
Clunk—
‘......?’
Before he could even fully register his puzzlement at the sound—
The ceiling right in front of him opened, and something heavy came dropping down.
‘What is that?’
Since he couldn't see it with his eyes, he focused the Serpent Sense to determine its identity.
Then, the fallen thing began taking shape with a clamorous racket.
Once it had taken shape, he could tell it was an Automaton.
But it was clearly quite different from an ordinary Automaton.
For that thing was what could only be called an old-fashioned clockwork-type Automaton.
‘Judging by the Mana Force I'm sensing, it doesn't seem like it's received any special reinforcement treatment.’
Then why is something like that here?
He didn't understand, but 1 thing was certain.
The fact that an Automaton was in a place like this absolutely could not be for a friendly reason.
Furthermore, since encountering an old-fashioned Automaton was a first for him, he had no choice but to be even more on guard.
‘In the end, I have to destroy it and move on.’
To just ignore it and pass as things were—there was no telling what variables might arise.
Feyr pulled out the spear he had driven into the ceiling and descended to the floor at the same time.
The moment he touched down, the Automaton registered Feyr's presence and turned its head toward him.
Click.
The 4 extended arms of the Automaton held swords.
As the Automaton slowly drew closer, Feyr gripped his spear properly and clicked his tongue.
Mana was still sufficient.
But the real problem lay elsewhere.
‘Time is running out.’
The time allotted for this exam was 10 minutes.
It had taken roughly 7 minutes to collect all the Tokens, so about 3 minutes remained.
He had to deal with this Automaton and return within 3 minutes—he couldn't say the time was generous.
‘Above all.’
That was even more so because he didn't know what level of capability this Automaton possessed.
But the more impatient one becomes, the more delayed things get.
Feyr calmly redistributed Mana throughout his body and faced the approaching Automaton.
‘I don't usually favor spears.’
But there's no other choice right now.
He swung the spear at the Automaton's flank with great force.
However, the Automaton reacted to the strike almost reflexively—3 of its arm-mounted swords moved to block the spear.
Claaang!
The sound of metal clashing against metal rang out through the wide Exam Room.
‘Heavy.’
It seemed the Automaton, too, was a solid lump of metal through and through.
As Feyr twisted the spear and sent the swords deflecting away, the Automaton swung its concealed 4th sword.
By a hair's breadth, Feyr bent his body backward to dodge the sword strike, then raised his spear and created distance.
Clunk—
In the midst of it all, a Formation Array he hadn't managed to dodge was activating.
‘I'm somehow managing to avoid the Mechanisms using the Serpent Sense, but there's no way to deal with the Formation Arrays.’
It was truly nothing but an irritant.
While he was busy dodging the incoming arrow barrage—
The Automaton was receiving every single thing that came rushing at it head-on with its body, unbothered.
But thanks to that, he was able to find a clue.
‘That is......?’
A crack that had formed in the center of the Automaton's chest was caught by the Serpent Sense.
It was a very small crack, but with every slight movement it made, that crack was growing.
‘Every other part is solid metal through and through, but that one spot alone is not.......’
Perhaps the maker who built that thing had done so deliberately.
That thought suddenly flashed through Feyr's mind.
Feyr adjusted his grip to a thrusting stance and lowered his posture.
‘If there's a weak point, there's no need to go at it head-on.’
With Mana concentrated in his legs, Feyr watched the slowly approaching Automaton and waited for his moment.
And then, in the blink of an eye—
Pakak!
Feyr shot forward in an instant and drove the spear through the Automaton's chest.
But......
Rrrrrr——!
With the sound of clockwork, the Automaton's 4 arms were raised toward Feyr.
The moment those 4 swords came sweeping down toward Feyr—
Feyr channeled Mana into the spear he was gripping and slashed through the Automaton's body in a circular arc.
The moment the head and body separated, the Automaton collapsed lifelessly and finally ceased to move.
‘So the head was this Automaton's core after all.’
Every Automaton has its own core.
When the core is destroyed or separated from the body, it stops functioning like this.
So naturally, he hadn't thought the weak point would be in the chest.
Then why had the chest been the weak point?
Puzzling over it, Feyr rummaged through the Automaton—
And an unexpected item was discovered there.
‘A Token?’
A 4th Token had been found.
‘I've never heard of something like this existing.......’
Perhaps even Zak didn't know about it.
That thought suddenly occurred to him.
‘Whatever the case, I'll find out once I bring it back.’
With that thought, Feyr immediately started sprinting toward the door.
Outside on the upper floor, Zak was gazing at his Pocket Watch, lost in thought.
‘Taking longer than I expected.’
Even monkeys fall from trees—Feyr was taking even longer than Zak had anticipated.
And for good reason, as there was now less than 1 minute remaining by the watch.
Just as Zak closed his Pocket Watch and turned away—
Kaboooom—
Suddenly, the sound of a door bursting open from behind was accompanied by a familiar voice.
"How many minutes did it take?"