The Lady's Butler: I Reincarnated To Serve The Villainess

Chapter 238: Cedric’s Trial 3: Ice Golems

Cedric watched the bridge crumble with a sigh of relief.

He had cuts here and there on his body, but nothing that truly bothered him.

Although those damned critters had been annoying to deal with, they weren’t strong enough to cause him too much trouble.

Graa!!!!

One of them let out a weird roar as it managed to escape the collapsing bridge and launch itself at him.

"..."

With a blank expression, Cedric caught it midair, looked at the struggling creature, and then tossed it into the abyss that the rest of them disappeared into.

He watched the creature disappear into the darkness before turning around, intending to continue ahead.

After walking for a while, with his guard still up, Cedric soon came upon what seemed to be a temple.

Like everything in here, it seemed to be made of stone, stone that had ice and snow clinging to it.

This only increased his confusion.

After all, from what he knew, breakthrough trials were supposed to happen within one’s soul, or more specifically, a souldscape.

So how the hell did his soul not only possess a dungeon, but the dungeon basically seemed like a frozen city?

Since he wasn’t going to get an answer right now, he decided to file that away for later. For now, he had to decide whether or not to walk into the frozen temple.

His instincts warned him not to, but then again, he saw no other way to advance.

The option was between going back or walking into the temple....the former, which was impossible since the bridge was gone.

He could try forming one from ice, but he was certain that his mana would run halfway through.

So only one option remained.

"Alright then," Cedric muttered, coming to a decision, "let’s see what’s waiting for me."

With that, he walked through the open doors and into the temple.

BANG!

The moment Cedric properly walked in, the doors slammed shut behind him, leaving him in the dark.

Well, not for long, because the next second, torches with white flames lit up, revealing that he was in some sort of narrow corridor.

The walls were made of stone, and on it was carved what seemed like diagrams.

Cedric looked at them for a while, and the more he looked, the more he realized they were telling a story.

The first diagram showed what this place had originally been, a city that was thriving and populated.

Its structures stood tall, completely unfrozen.

The diagrams also showed people going about their day, seemingly happy.

But as the diagrams continued, Cedric soon learnt exactly why the place was like this.

Although it wasn’t clear, a beast suddenly appeared in the city and without a chance for the people to defend themselves, it unleashed a turret of ice on them.

Cedric looked at the diagrams for a long while, following the story as it continued along the corridor wall.

The people hadn’t been unprepared exactly; the later diagrams showed spirit mages among them.

But the beast that they stood against seemed to overwhelmingly outclass them.

In the end, with no other choice, the spirit mages managed to seal the creature inside this very temple.

Unfortunately, the damage done to this city was too much to reverse, so they were left with no choice but to abandon it.

"..."

Cedric realized two things from looking at the diagram.

Whatever the beast that froze this city was, he was going to face it further into the dungeon.

And secondly, the story writer for this dungeon was trash.

If the diagram truly represented what truly happened to the city, then how the hell did the mountain suddenly appear around the city?

After all, the diagram showed a su—

Cedric looked as the sun suddenly disappeared, almost as if the one who created this trial was fixing their mistake.

And they were.

Avera was far from what one would call a proper story writer, and even Adrian knew this.

Cedric turned speechless as the diagram fixed itself.

Either way, he decided to go on with the breakthrough trial, and if his thoughts were correct, then the creature sealed within this temple was the final one he had to face before breaking through.

So he kept walking.

The deeper into the corridor he went, the colder it became, and soon enough, he encountered his first obstacle.

Dragging a club made completely of ice was a large golem, and unlike the Yeti, this one could very clearly see him.

"Damn it," Cedric let out as he readied himself for a fight, "after this, I’ll take a vacation with my fiancée."

The golem lifted its club high in the air, and the next second,

BOOM!

The club slammed into the position he stood, the impact shaking the entire corridor.

Fortunately, Cedric managed to move just in time to avoid being turned to paste by the attack.

Unfortunately, the corridor was narrow enough that just in time still meant the shockwave caught him, slamming him into the wall hard enough to knock the air out of his lungs.

He pushed himself off the wall immediately, not giving himself time to register the pain since the golem was already raising the club again.

BOOM.

Cedric moved along the wall this time instead of away from the attack, using the shockwave’s momentum to push him forward rather than back, closing the distance between himself and the golem.

The golem hadn’t expected this, and neither had Cedric entirely, but it was working, so he committed to it.

He placed both palms flat against the golem’s torso the moment he was close enough.

By all means, what he was about to try seemed dumb, but there was the slightest of chances that this might work, so he went for it.

The moment his hand properly rested on the golem’s cold structure, he immediately started pouring mana into it.

At first, nothing seemed to be happening, and the golem started pulling its club back, ready for another attack.

But the next second, "got it!"

Cedric let out with a smile as his mana found exactly what he was searching for.... It’s core.

The moment his mana wrapped around the core, he immediately froze it, causing the golem’s movements to be completely stopped.

Since it wasn’t receiving mana from the core anymore, the golem’s form suddenly started crumbling until it was nothing but an ice rubble.

"That was easier than expected," Cedric muttered as he stood up straight.

Again, he learnt that he had a talent for jinxing himself because just after his words, the ground beneath him started trembling.

Looking ahead, he noticed another golem walking up to him, and then, just behind it, was a second one.

And behind the second one was a third, and then a fourth.

Each golem was holding a weapon different from the last, with one holding a hammer and the other an axe.

The previously empty corridor was now filled with towering golems, all of which were looking at Cedric.

"..." He speechlessly looked at them for a while before saying, "Can I take back my words?"

****

It took Cedric a while, but he finally made it through the golems.

But not without a couple of obvious signs from the fight.

Cedric leaned against the frozen wall, breathing heavily.

His clothes were in tatters, several fresh cuts covered his arms, and one of his sleeves had been ripped off entirely.

His knuckles were bruised from repeatedly smashing through frozen limbs whenever he couldn’t reach a core in time.

The corridor behind him had become a graveyard of shattered ice, and the countless golems had forced him to improve with every exchange.

Though with as much improvement as he had gone through, there was still the undeniable fact that he had run out of mana.

And right now was the worst timing, after all, he was right in front of a large door which seemed to lead to where the boss was sealed.

Letting out a sigh, Cedric sat before the door, looking at it.

The trial didn’t seem to be a time-based one, so what was stopping him from recovering his mana right here?

Besides, since this was his souldscape, all the mana that flowed within was ice mana, and within this dungeon, there was a lot to go around.

With that thought, he sat down, folded his legs, and closed his eyes.

The effects were immediate, as mana immediately started rushing into him, refilling his empty pool.

Though since this was his soul, he wondered where the mana was being stored.

Cedric didn’t dwell on that as he continued absorbing mana.

A few minutes later, he reopened his eyes, feeling completely refreshed as he stood up.

"Alright then," Cedric let out as he walked towards the door, "let’s see what’s waiting for us beyond this."