"The purpose of a place such as this is to be experienced. You must discover the way out for yourselves. Otherwise, the experience would lose its meaning."
’Kill me. I swear this was less embarrassing when I fantasized these things in my head...’
I continued before they could respond.
"Besides, I am certain that capable visitors such as yourselves will eventually find the answer. Perhaps it will take an hour. Perhaps several hours. Perhaps days. Perhaps years."
My voice remained completely serious.
"Perhaps decades... centuries... or even longer."
Silence followed my words.
I knew the Response Unit was communicating with one another through a specialized device. I had read about similar equipment in the [Arcana] wiki before, so I understood that they could communicate privately without speaking aloud.
I waited patiently and did not interrupt them.
After a short while, Elias finally looked back at me.
It seemed that he and his team had reached an agreement on what to say.
"But... we would like to leave."
I tilted my head.
"Ah? You want to leave immediately? Why so?"
Elias hesitated to answer before Clara, the only woman in the team intervened to reply.
"We are only here as visitors. Naturally, visitors will eventually want to leave."
She carefully continued, not wanting to agitate or say something wrong towards the strange "entity" in front of her.
"If we stay for too long, then the next time we visit, it won’t feel the same. It’s better to leave while the experience is still fresh, so that when we return, it can feel like the first time again."
I stared at her quite briefly, then, I smiled.
To the Response Unit, that smile was incredibly eerie.
It was almost as though the supernatural entity in front of them was saying...
’I know what you’re trying to do.’
A chill ran through them out of fright. Dealing with supernatural entities was always dangerous and strange, it was hard to tell what would happen during confrontation with them.
But in reality...
I was practically celebrating inside.
’Thank God! They actually want to leave!’
There had been a lot of situations where Response Units in [Arcana] would stay inside a supernatural space for long periods of time to study it.
I quickly suppressed my excitement and returned to my stern expression.
"Ah, I see. How considerate of you."
I nodded slowly.
Hearing the "supernatural entity’s" response, the Response Unit was quite elated. It seemed that this entity could actually be reasoned with through conversation.
They were also secretly proud of themselves for managing to "outsmart" the entity and, in their minds, even work around the rules of this supernatural space.
Of course... if I were able to hear what they were talking about, I would definitely shake my head in embarrassment for both me and the Response Unit below me.
"Indeed, it would be rather unfortunate if you were to stay here for so long that your next visit became dull. A visitor should always leave with something to look forward to, after all."
’Just keep talking... Eventually I’ll probably say something useful.’
Elias exchanged a quick glance with the others before carefully speaking.
"Then... may you please give us a hint?"
I stared at him for a moment.
"A hint?"
I tilted my head slightly once again, as though it was an indicator that I was displeased by their question.
"Why do you require a hint?"
Clara was the one who answered this time again.
"Because we’ve already tried to find the way out ourselves, but nothing we’ve done has worked."
She glanced briefly at the endless staircase around them before continuing.
"We’ve gone up and down the stairs several times. We’ve tried different routes, counted the floors, checked the structure around us, and even tried to determine whether there was some sort of pattern to this place. But no matter what we do, we always end up somewhere that looks exactly the same."
Her expression became more serious.
"We don’t know what we’re missing. There could be something incredibly obvious right in front of us, but because we don’t understand the rules of this place, we wouldn’t even know what to look for."
Clara looked back at me.
"So if you know something that we don’t, even something small, it could give us a direction to work with. We’re not asking you to simply tell us the way out. We just need to know where we should begin looking."
I remained silent for a moment.
I quickly composed myself.
"Indeed. Perhaps a hint would be useful..."
I nodded slowly, as though I had already been considering the idea.
"Hmm..."
Hearing me contemplate, the Response Unit immediately grew tense.
None of them dared to speak.
They watched me carefully, their bodies stiffening as they waited for my answer.
Even the slightest movement from me made them nervous. Whatever I was thinking about, they could only hope that their previous words had not displeased me.
I remained completely silent as the tension continued to build.
’Hint? The fuck kind of hint am I supposed to give you?! I’m stuck here too, dammit!’
I maintained my stern expression while desperately searching for something, anything, that I could say.
’Calm down. Calm down... Just think of something.’
My mind raced.
’What would an actual supernatural entity say here? Something mysterious... Something vague... Something that sounds like it knows exactly what it’s talking about...’
’Fuck. How am I supposed to come up with that on the spot?!’
The Response Unit continued waiting.
I could practically feel their eyes on me.
’Shit... I need to say something.’
Then, just as I finally began to calm myself down, my eyes suddenly fell toward my own hand.
The Ring of Sacrilege.
That’s right...!
If I truly was now inside [Arcana]...
Then perhaps the Ring of Sacrilege, combined with the Gem of Augury, could activate [Augury]!