CH483

With the fourth floor in front of them, Ben couldn’t help but feel great. He felt like he was winning, finally pulling one over on the gods after how the last tower had gone for them. He’d been able to see everything that was going to happen on the first three floors ahead of time, making them easy to deal with thanks to Funa’s strength on their side.

Now just to see if the luck holds up.

Given that he’d only been able to witness three options for the fourth and fifth floors, that was where things had the greatest chance to fly off the rails. He couldn’t deny the likelihood that there were more waiting to be seen, he could only hope that his preparations and the presence of the great spirit would be enough if that really was the case.

And if I’m wrong then we’ll just push through anyway. We’re way too close to give up.

The atmosphere amongst them was confident and Ben was feeling it too, mixed with his determination. Anything less than getting to the end was the same as failure in his eyes, he wouldn’t tolerate it when all of this was to help Thera and he was carrying a few tools still that hadn’t gotten a chance to shine with how easy their progress had been.

Potent potions to handle debuffs and mind effects of all sorts, the clothing under his jacket having only dark enchantments on it to keep it being affected by the cancelling effect of the last two floors, as well as a couple enchanted knives too. Compared to what he’d gone into the earth tower with, it could be seen as minimal, but for him, it was enough considering the advantages they had and anything they might face.

If he were to look at everything they’d gone against so far, it had essentially just been three mind effects in the form of visual, audio, and tactile hallucinations, along with what he assumed was a dark spell that prevented light from existing on the first floor, leaving debuffs practically untouched.

Since it seemed the floor they drew was likely random from a greater pool of options, there was always the chance they just wouldn’t get any, but still it put him on his toes. It just felt like debuffs should be there for them to suffer through eventually. As masochistic as it would sound, it felt like the dark tower would be incomplete if they didn’t deal with it at least once.

Of course, if the next option has no debuffs again that means it’s going to be a floor I know nothing about so going to cross my fingers and hope for a bit of weakening when we step through.

“You guys all ready?” He asked, looking at his companions and getting affirmatives from all of them. “Cool, in that case, let’s get started.”

As prepared as they could be, he kicked open the door and walked beyond to face whatever was about to be thrown at them.

His mind speed skills were moving in a blaze before he’d taken his first step was likely what let him see something going wrong. It looked like the world was flickering, cutting in and out while trapping his body where it stood.

For just a second he wondered if that was somehow a part of the trial, something he was supposed to overcome, until within the flicks he saw something else. Three women he knew, laying on the ground in a blank space, giving him one of three options. Either it wasn’t real, it was something he was supposed to overcome, or something in the trial had broken when he’d touched it.

The few minds he had observing the world at a normal speed could do nothing. If it wasn’t for how he could think then he doubted he’d even be able to perceive anything was happening at all, which to him pointed to the idea the trial itself was malfunctioning. Whatever had knocked out Thera and the other two had likely failed when it came to him for one reason or another, and now it didn’t know what to do. It was like he was trapped between entering the stage and being kept out with no end in sight.

Oh, I might be fucked. Okay, think here, think. From what I can see, this is the sleep/debuff stage so the girls just need to break free of the nightmare they’re trapped in before they’re too weak to move and then the exit should appear. Now what about… Ah, yep, looks like she’s fine at least.

Amongst the flashes, he could see a dark blob moving between the three, more of a blur than anything else with what had to be Funa doing an examination and being clearly better off than he was.

So what’s the difference between us here? Is it because mind effects don’t work on me that the trial doesn’t know what to do since you should be asleep to enter it? Funa should be in the same boat, but maybe she was able to manipulate things for herself to make it work. Which doesn’t help me in the slightest.

If he was right then he couldn’t imagine what he was supposed to be doing there to free himself. He couldn’t just turn unnatural mind off, that was the way he thought. There was no escaping the processes of his own mind, but short of that he was lost. It was like he was going against an entirely different stage from the rest of them.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

Hey Myriad, if you’re listening then I’d like to submit a bug report, this floor wasn’t made to accommodate people like me. Which is the second time this has happened I might add! This is unfair! It’s discrimination! Why do I have to keep suffering when you guys are the ones building things wrong!

His complaints were met with no answer, not that he was expecting one and with nothing else he could do he put the full weight of his mind into trying to find a solution himself rather than trust the gods would fix the error his presence had created, with his entire status going through his head while he looked at angles that might work.

Trial breaker, trial defier, king of sacrilege, my resistances and my resistance enhancement, all of them are maybe options but for now let’s try material manipulation.

What he was hoping was that his theory was right, that maybe he was between floors in a sense, giving him the chance to still use his magic and push himself through, but that failed before it started. He couldn’t even activate his magic, let alone use it to push him further into the trial, leaving his first attempt as a failure.