Chapter 67: Eight Guarded Doors

Raive was shocked at how little new information he’d gained after joining the frontlines.

Judging by how things were playing out, he’d just be wasting time there.

So he decided to push himself a bit harder.

Relying on his speed, he raced around the entire castle, circling again and again without tiring.

As he ran, he used Full Moon Slash every 100 meters, creating a clear buffer between the monster horde and the wall.

Not only that, he swung his sword into the ground, carving deep crevices. An impromptu moat to narrow the monsters’ advance, a choke point limiting their approach toward the walls.

After making them all around the walls, he came to a stop and observed.

As expected, monsters fell into the seemingly bottomless holes, pushed in by those behind them. The rest went around, following the narrow paths left between each one.

"This much should relieve some pressure on the defenders!" Raive nodded to himself.

Figuring he’d helped enough, he jumped back up the wall and looked around. He ignored the cheering soldiers praising him and focused on the other "players" instead.

As he’d expected, nobody besides him and his party was fighting the monsters proactively.

He could see the others roaming the streets, as if looking for somewhere to hide.

Some were even beating civilians as if they owned the place, careful not to kill them by accident.

They were all acting as they pleased, ignoring the task at hand.

Watching them irritated Raive, but he couldn’t reprimand them either. He had no authority over them, and he couldn’t kill them without dying himself.

In other words, all he could do for now was watch.

Based on his senses, he counted about 700 players left in the city.

Khamish’s presence wasn’t among them. He was starting to worry, since Khamish was normally incapable of hiding from his detection, but he still hoped he was safe.

Khamish carried almost all of their gathered items inside his skill, after all.

Losing him would be a big blow to Raive’s plans.

Anyway, other than the "killing will get you killed" rule, he needed to figure out the rest. And for that, he had to observe.

The larger the sample size, the clearer the rules would get. And with hundreds of samples available, it shouldn’t take long to figure out a few.

After just a few minutes, Raive began collecting truths he could clearly verify.

First, hurting others, NPC or not, wouldn’t get them killed instantly. Though, as common sense would dictate, getting caught harming an NPC by a soldier would get them captured or killed on the spot.

Second, they got nothing for killing monsters. No drops or rewards of any kind. A thankless, reward-less job, but one of the keys to clearing the trial.

Third, some parts of the city weren’t accessible to players. Soldiers guarded those places firmly, killing anyone who tried to enter.

Fourth and last, all the higher powers of the kingdom had gathered in the throne room, protected by the best knights there were.

With them there, even if a traitor awakened to some purpose and tried to shatter the crystal, they were doomed to fail. Though if the traitor was at the level of Shymine and the others, the chance of success might climb higher than acceptable.

Still, of everything he’d observed, the third was the most suspicious.

Around the entire city, there were exactly eight places thoroughly guarded against intruders.

From their appearance, they looked like paths leading underground. But what lay down there, needing this much protection, Raive couldn’t even guess.

But for the quest, for the trial, and for everyone’s survival, he had to see it for himself.

Raive didn’t delay, heading straight for the closest one.

They were spaced equally around the castle, as if someone had drawn a circle around it.

At first, Raive thought they were exits for secret passages within the castle. But if that were the case, the exits would’ve been camouflaged as normal houses, not left exposed like tunnels.

What’s more, they wouldn’t need to be spaced so evenly around the castle either, making it so predictable.

"HALT!"

As soon as he came close, the soldiers frowned and leveled their spears at him.

"NOBODY IS ALLOWED BEYOND THIS POINT! RETURN, OR DIE!"

The soldiers didn’t bother explaining. They just guarded the gate and threatened any intruder with death.

But Raive wasn’t intimidated at all.

"I am an agent of the gods." He said, expression firm, voice gallant and regal. "To find out why the monsters are rushing toward this place, I need to inspect these sites!"

For a moment, hesitation flashed across the guards’ faces.

But they soon stomped their feet, aimed their spears straight at Raive, and shouted. "NO means NO!" 𝘧𝓇ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝘣𝓃ℴ

"I see..."

At that point, Raive felt that something was fishy.

If it really needed protection, they wouldn’t leave the entrance out in the open like this. They’d try to hide it inside an inconspicuous building.

Given that they’d had to assign guards to it, it wasn’t something the kingdom had made itself.

’My instincts are telling me there’s a clue down there.’

But with the guards not backing down, not even willing to listen, Raive was left with no choice.

"Then... please don’t blame me for what happens next."

He returned his sword to his storage bag and tightened his fists. He had to hold back so he wouldn’t kill them by accident, and with his strength, even a neck chop might end badly.

So he went with a more direct approach.

BAM!

He punched each of them once, straight into the solar plexus.

They all dropped, eyes rolling back to the whites. Raive could only imagine the pain that had shut their consciousness down so suddenly.

But it was a necessary sacrifice.

"Now..."

Raive faced the entrance, which looked like a subway entrance made of stone. He took a deep breath and stepped forward, bracing for the worst.

But what he saw down there left him with more questions than answers.

"This is... a dungeon?"

Right.

At the bottom of the stairs lay a wide, dome-shaped area about 100 meters in diameter.

In its middle stood a dungeon entrance, burning with ominous black flames. It looked nothing like the dungeons that had appeared outside!

"Does this mean all eight of those places are dungeons?" Raive frowned.

He couldn’t use his save slots now, or he’d lose his chance to restart. In short, he could only check out the dungeon without relying on an immediate reload.

"But well... I guess I can’t just walk away either."

After a deep sigh, Raive stepped forward and entered the mysterious dungeon.