8/7 Bonus chapter thanks to @Nickyname from Ko-fi! This was the first one off donation for AWR, so an extra bonus!
Stepping into the workshop, I opened the hidden door in the floor.
Until I opened it, it was just an ordinary floor, impossible to distinguish with the naked eye. But when I pushed the back with force, the seemingly seamless floor split open, revealing a passage to the basement.
This workshop must be a skill, not reality, for it to be able to hide the floor like this. In reality, even if it were closed, there would be a visible crack on the floor, no matter how well it was made.
A long staircase leading down to the basement. I slowly descended the steps. There didn’t seem to be any light source, but I could see clearly. Is this also because of the skill?
‘It’s long.’
The immense height of the basement as seen from the outside. As if to prove it, the descending stairs seemed endlessly long. My footsteps echoed loudly within the vast cavity.
And at the end of the stairs, a gigantic door stood before me.
The door was unnecessarily grand and enormous. It literally filled the entire height of the basement.
I approached the door and placed my hand on it. It wouldn’t budge even with force. Well, considering the size of this door, it must be incredibly heavy, so it’s only natural that it wouldn’t open, but…
‘But this is my skill.’
Does it make sense that the owner of the skill can’t open the door?
Hiding the entrance to the basement and then placing another door blocking the way even after finding it… It seems they really want to keep what’s inside hidden.
Flash!
At that moment, the door emitted a light. The light flowed along the wave-like patterns engraved on the door, filling it from the outside in.
When the light filled all the patterns, they formed a single sentence.
“…Of course.”
The completed sentence was written in the ancient language.
[I am the keeper of truth, and the mediator of the world.]
“…This sentence, somewhere…”
Right, the first dungeon I went to with Sybil, Aster, Quinie, and Jane. It was what the statue in the sanctuary there said.
Then, at the end of this sentence…
[Speak the god you believe in.]
“As expected.”
However, the statue in the sanctuary said, ‘I will grant you the glory of facing your god’ after that.
Does the fact that it doesn’t say that here mean that even if I speak the god I believe in, I cannot face them?
‘Is this door the original, perhaps? Did the statue slightly modify it?’
It was none other than me who cleared that dungeon.
I didn’t know how to clear it, but it happened by chance.
But regardless of the clearing, my answer to this question is always the same.
“I do not believe in god.”
I spoke those words in the ‘ancient language’.
Immediately after speaking…
Rumble
The door moved on its own with a heavy sound. As if welcoming my visit, or perhaps luring me inside.
‘Both in the dungeon and now, this is the answer.’
I didn’t have time to think about it when I cleared the dungeon, but…
Thinking about it now, that dungeon is very strange.
That dungeon isn’t the only sanctuary on this continent. Sanctuaries are hidden in various dungeons, ruins, and unexplored areas.
And sanctuaries give rewards to the first person who encounters them. The reward of facing a god. The player, Aster Evans, finds a sanctuary, meets Baldur, and receives his help to move forward.
However, most sanctuaries have nothing to do with clearing dungeons. From a game perspective, they’re like bonus points.
But uniquely, only that first dungeon I went to had clearing the sanctuary as a condition. And the answer required was to say that you don’t believe in god.
‘The statue can sense a person’s divine power. Lies don’t work.’
In other words, since the protagonist of this game is Aster, the player can never solve that dungeon. There’s no way Aster, who has received Baldur’s divine power, would say ‘I don’t believe in god,’ and even if he did, the statue wouldn’t believe him.
And as for expecting someone else without divine power to solve it, in this world where gods clearly exist, there’s no one who would say they don’t believe in god.
Therefore, the only person who could solve the dungeon from the beginning…
‘Was me.’
Someone from another world. Someone like me, from a world where not believing in god isn’t strange.
The question and answer seemed to acknowledge the existence of another world.
The contradiction of offering the reward of facing the god you believe in, while the true answer requires rejecting god.
What is the purpose of this question?
‘Will I find out if I go in?’
With a mix of anticipation and worry, I slowly stepped inside.
As I descended the stairs, I expected it, but the inside was a vast cavity. However, something was placed at the end of each wall of the chamber. I walked slowly along the wall.
“…Are these statues?”
As I got closer to the wall, I could see intricately carved statues. Most of the statues were in human form, about my height. In other words, they seemed to be made to the scale of actual humans.
‘These faces seem familiar.’
The statues weren’t in my memory, but they felt familiar somehow. However, since they were statues and not actual people, it wasn’t easy to recall exactly who they were. Did I see them while looking for game information or something?
The statues were lined up endlessly, stacked in layers even above. It was a number that justified the need for this vast underground space.
And…
“…What is this.”
I saw it.
Among the countless statues, past the ones I had simply thought were familiar, I found one statue that I couldn’t ignore and froze in place.
I stared at it as if my eyes were nailed to it.
Slowly, goosebumps rose from my fingertips, and a chilling wind swept past. I couldn’t understand what my emotions, my feelings, were ultimately directed towards.
I just muttered, as if to confirm the identity of the statue I was looking at, once again.
“…Merlin.”
The Great Mage Merlin.
He, whom I met in the Sacred Forest of Tyburn, was standing there as a statue.
I was unsure about the other statues, but I could definitely recognize Merlin, whom I had met in person.
‘Right, Merlin is dead. The Merlin in the forest was an illusion created by a dream.’
But even so, why is Merlin’s statue here? What is the relationship between these numerous statues and Merlin…
‘No, wait a minute.’
Only then did I realize something and looked around again. Retracing my steps, I checked the faces of the statues I had passed by casually.
‘…There’s no mistake.’