12. Floor 3 Trial(3)
[You will take the trial as set by Constellation <Serpent That Encircles the World>.]
[Loading information on the Stage 2 trial.]
Jǫrmungandr.
The Constellation standing at the summit of all reptiles, and of serpent-related species in particular.
The instant he checked the next trial, Lee Jin-hyeok knew what the thing wanted.
<Stage 2>
[Opponent]
▶The Dance of Lava and Frost
[Reward]
▶Revealed upon clearing the trial.
*The Stage 1 trial reward is currently accumulated.
The Dance of Lava and Frost.
Heard in passing, it was an extremely abstract phrase whose meaning was impossible to grasp.
Most players would not even know any information about it.
But Lee Jin-hyeok knew.
-"A Lizardman soldier, a warrior, and a general are different things."
Before the regression.
Russell, who exchanged with foreign species, animals, and the like in all sorts of ways, had said it.
-"Those fellows have a peculiar style of trial. Not as manly as me, but still, how should I put it, properly manly?"
-"The Floor 3 trial? Hahahaha. That's child's play, closer to a rite or a baptism. The sort of thing they run on soldiers!"
The name of the Stage 2 trial was the Flame Ordeal.
All one had to do was endure flames fired at a set intensity.
-"And in the process it doesn't matter whether you raise a shield, use chill magic, or drink a <Flame Resistance Potion>."
-"But to be acknowledged as a 'warrior,' you have to endure the Lava Ordeal bare-bodied, at a far higher temperature than the Flame Ordeal."
-"About seven out of ten Lizardmen drop out partway through. Even though they were born in <Lava Ocean> and have high fire resistance!"
-"What you have to do to become a general? Don't even ask."
-"You have to endure the 'Dance of Lava and Frost.' Maybe one in a hundred Lizardmen passes it."
The Dance of Lava and Frost was a trial where lava and frost poured down in alternation.
One had to endure not only the fire resistance but also the chill pouring in partway through.
And that was not all.
Because the body heated up and cooled down over and over, it required stronger fire resistance than enduring lava of the same temperature.
[Constellation <Fire That Killed the Mother God> smiles at the contents of the trial.]
[Constellation <Eternal Flame> glares at <Serpent That Encircles the World>.]
[Constellation <King of Muspell> is satisfied, saying it is a very good chance to confirm your durability against fire.]
'Jǫrmungandr's reason for setting this as the trial is simple.'
A difficulty that felt somewhat excessive.
No, one that would be judged outright impossible to clear.
'It means to test whether I really hold the Imugi's power.'
The reason it had intervened over the head of the Lizardman Lord and even of the Constellation ruling Floor 3.
It was unmistakably trying to work out whether Lee Jin-hyeok 'truly' held the Imugi's power.
A being like an Imugi was nearly nonexistent in number, so even from Jǫrmungandr's position as the summit of reptiles, one would be enormously precious.
[To proceed with the Stage 2 trial, you must surrender all equipment items.]
He took off every item he had and put them into the fissure formed in midair.
[Beginning the Stage 2 trial.]
RUMBLE.
The colosseum stage at the center began to shake, then started sinking toward the ground.
'So it begins?'
Even in this sudden situation, Lee Jin-hyeok simply stood with his arms folded.
[Constellation <Eternal Flame> covers both its eyes.]
[Constellation <Dawn King of Zhonghua> marvels at your musculature.]
Before long, lava poured down like a wave.
Even while feeling the scalding energy wrap around his body, he simply stood still.
'However hard this trial is, there's no way I can fail it.'
The five stages in all that made up the Floor 3 trial.
At a glance it gives the impression that the Lizardman Lord adjusts them as he pleases and the trial's fairness does not hold.
But in fact that was not so.
The player could choose the 'standard specification' by their own choice and take that instead.
And above all, each stage in the Floor 3 trial had its own 'theme.'
Stage 1 was a trial that examined 'whether you know how to fight against a group.'
Stage 2 was a trial that examined 'whether you have the capacity for fire resistance.'
The point to note here was that it examined only the capacity for fire resistance and nothing else at all.
'It spews chill too, but that's only to make the lava's force stronger.'
FWOOOOOSH—!
'Which means the lava and frost in this trial do no damage.'
[*Warning! You have been afflicted with <Status Ailment: Burn>. You take continuous pain and damage!]
[*Warning! <Status Ailment: Burn> deepens!]
Instead, only damage from the 'status ailment' came in.
But that had nothing to do with Lee Jin-hyeok either.
'No status ailment works on me.'
[By the effect of the skill <Indomitable Star>, you are freed from all status ailments.]
That was right.
Whatever the difficulty, the Stage 2 trial was fundamentally a trial about 'status ailments.'
From Lee Jin-hyeok's position, even the Tower's hardest trial could be cleared more easily than eating rice cake lying down.
[*Warning! You have been afflicted with <Status Ailment: Freeze>. Your movements slow.]
[*Warning! <Status Ailment: Freeze> deepens!]
[By the effect of the skill <Indomitable Star>, you are freed from all status ailments.]
Lava or frost, it made no difference.
[Constellation <King of Muspell> is satisfied with the durability you possess.]
[Constellation <Eternal Flame> peers at you between its fingers.]
[Constellation <Dawn King of Zhonghua> nods.]
The Constellations, who did not know the body Lee Jin-hyeok had was a Constellation's vessel, could only marvel at it.
"Th, there's no way!"
"A human, not even a Lizardman...... a human taking the Floor 3 trial at that...... how?"
"Sshk!"
The Lizardmen's astonishment far exceeded the Constellations'.
From their position, reaching the rank of 'general' required climbing at least to Floor 20 of the Tower and undergoing separate training on top of it.
And a player who was a mere novice (a beginner below Floor 5) had passed the trial.
[You have endured the Dance of Lava and Frost and passed the Stage 2 trial!]
[You have cleared the Main Quest <Challenger of Fire>.]
[You have satisfied the objective of a <Star Decree>.]
[You have acquired 15,000 points.]
[You have acquired the item <Scale of the Ancient Fire Dragon>.]
[You have acquired the item <Small Ember of Ruin>.]
With the rewards the Constellations had piled on, he obtained a full 15,000 points.
And two precious material items on top of that.
'This scale has a separate use later.'
[Your items are returned to you.]
[After clearing the trial, you may enter Floor 3.]
[Or you may challenge further.]
"An additional trial, is it."
Retrieving his items from the fissure formed before his eyes, Lee Jin-hyeok looked up at the sky.
A serpent-shaped constellation, flaunting an especially intense presence in Floor 3's sky.
[Constellation <Serpent That Encircles the World> is confused.]
Jǫrmungandr was, if anything, confused.
'Of course. From that trial it can't tell whether I'm an Imugi or not.'
A species on the order of an Imugi could normally get through something like the Dance of Lava and Frost with ease.
The problem was that the cause of that lay in the 'scales' an Imugi possessed.
And yet Lee Jin-hyeok had just overcome this trial without any scales at all.
From Jǫrmungandr's position, it had become ambiguous whether Lee Jin-hyeok had endured the trial simply because his body was tough.
Or whether he had endured it thanks to the Imugi's power.
'Simply overpowering Lizardmen with presence and raising scales is possible for other species, not just an Imugi.'
For a higher-order reptilian species like a wyvern or a drake, it was entirely plausible.
So Jǫrmungandr could not reach an accurate judgment about Lee Jin-hyeok.
And this was exactly as Lee Jin-hyeok intended.
'Because that way it'll stake far bigger rewards on the next stage to test me.'
Passing each trial while keeping his Imugi nature ambiguously hidden made Jǫrmungandr more desperate.
Use that, and he could squeeze even greater rewards out of the thing.
[Constellation <Serpent That Encircles the World> involves itself in Player <Lee Jin-hyeok>'s Main Quest.]
[Constellation <Serpent That Encircles the World> adjusts the trial difficulty at its own discretion.]
[A Constellation's power is intervening. The player cannot refuse this.]
[*Upon refusal, the <Challenger of Fire> trial is processed as complete at once, and you are moved to Floor 3.]
"I think the trials have been enough up to here. That last one was a little dangerous, after all......"
Sure enough.
The moment Lee Jin-hyeok made a show of stepping back, Jǫrmungandr was startled.
[Constellation <Serpent That Encircles the World> hands down a new Star Decree.]
<Star Decree>
▶Objective: Pass Stage 3 of the Floor 3 trial.
▶Reward: All of the following are obtained.
1) 5,000 points.
2) <Scale of the Ancient Fire Dragon> x3
3) <Rare Grade Item Exchange Voucher>
Rewards far greater than before.
"Hmm......"
He deliberately began making a show of deliberating over the rewards.
[Constellation <King of Muspell> is satisfied with the current situation and chuckles.]
[Constellation <Eternal Flame> smiles, saying you are hopeless.]
[Constellation <Blood-Red Hair> advises <Serpent That Encircles the World> not to fall for tricks like that.]
'As far as I know, there are only three Imugi alive at this point. And all three of them have had their lifespans forcibly extended to the point where they could die at any time.'
Swish.
'So Jǫrmungandr has no choice but to verify me somehow.'
[Constellation <Serpent That Encircles the World> adds the skill <Evil Eye> to the Star Decree.]
[Constellation <Serpent That Encircles the World> adds the skill <Serpent's Senses> to the Star Decree.]
Sure enough, Jǫrmungandr kept increasing the rewards to draw him into participating.
They were all serpent-related, so its intentions were plain to see, but from Lee Jin-hyeok's position there was nothing to lose.
'Good. This is probably the maximum.'
What it truly wanted would only be obtainable by clearing all five stages anyway.
"In that case."
Pointless time-wasting, posturing, and haggling over rewards had gone far enough.
"I will challenge it."
***
<Stage 3>
[Opponent]
▶The Venom of the Basilisk
[Reward]
▶Revealed upon clearing the trial.
*The Stage 1 and Stage 2 trial rewards are currently accumulated.
The Stage 3 trial was the venom of the basilisk, a reptilian monster also called 'lethal poison.'
It was a venom potent enough that a single drop could bring a huge, hardy minotaur to its death.
Stage 3 was a trial that examined whether one had 'the capacity to endure poison.'
For Lizardmen, to whom poison was occasionally a tonic, it was also an indispensable trial.
However, players who came up to Floor 3 had no tolerance for poison yet.
So it was also the stage where the most people were eliminated or gave up.
But of course, the 'Poison' status ailment did not work on Lee Jin-hyeok.
[*Warning! You have been afflicted with <Status Ailment: Poison>.]
[By the effect of the skill <Indomitable Star>, you are freed from all status ailments.]
[By the effect of the skill <Imugi's Blood>, part of the poison is converted into mana.]
[Your Mana stat rises by 3.]
[Your Mana stat rises by 5.]
[Your Mana stat rises by 2.]
The poison poured down in the trial was instead becoming mana for Lee Jin-hyeok.
But from Jǫrmungandr's position, it still could not determine whether Lee Jin-hyeok was an Imugi or not.
The reason was the same as before.
It could not tell whether he endured simply because his body was tough, or whether poison failed to work because he was an Imugi.
Jǫrmungandr itself knew this well.
Which was why what it had truly prepared was not Stage 3 but the Stage 4 trial.
<Stage 4>
[Opponent]
▶'Subdue' your opponent by presence alone.
[Reward]
▶Revealed upon clearing the trial.
*The Stage 1, Stage 2, and Stage 3 trial rewards are currently accumulated.
[Beginning the Stage 4 trial.]
The moment the Stage 4 trial began, the gate on the far side of the colosseum opened and something bound in thick iron chains revealed itself.
ROOOOOAAAAR—!
An enormous body, hard scales, and a ferocity beyond any comparison with a Lizardman.
[Constellation <Serpent That Encircles the World> is watching you.]
The species that stood at the summit of the land reptiles.
It was a drake.