Story-Type Gate.
It was one of the various Gate types, and the reason it was called a Story-Type Gate was simple.
People one could converse with appeared inside the Gate. Of course, they were not real people.
They could not leave through the Gate exit. Nor could they comprehend Earth or Gates.
They were like NPCs in a game. Since they moved like characters in a story, they were called Story-Type Gates.
Scholars on Earth sometimes interpreted them as ‘events that occurred in another world.’
‘Because the inside of a Gate was itself another world.’
There were Story-Type Gates where one fought monsters as well, so the hypothesis was that they represented events from other worlds that had experienced a Gate Crisis before ours.
The fact that I had summoned the time of the past within this space was proof in itself that it was true.
“It turned into a Story-Type Gate.”
That did not change anything. Even if a Gate Transformation occurred, the fact that this was once ruins did not change.
The item we had been searching for was probably something that had been left here long ago.
It was likely connected to the item we had been seeking even now. In any case, the course of a Story-Type Gate could go in many directions.
We could cooperate with the person we met, or we could fight them.
‘In other words, that priest is the key to this Gate.’
I met Uncle’s eyes.
A person we had met in a temple at the center of the Desolate Ruins, which had been full of gnolls…….
I had no idea how this Gate would unfold.
“There should be gnolls outside. How did you make it this far?”
Fortunately, the priest spoke first.
“A dragon drove them away.”
“To think you travel with a hatchling. You truly are heroic brothers.”
The priest nodded as he looked at Yongyong. One thing I learned was that there had been gnolls outside even when the priest was here.
“What happened? There are gnolls everywhere outside, yet there is a person in the temple. It is bewildering.”
The priest spoke with a sorrowful expression.
“They were originally the people who lived here. They were cursed and took on the forms of gnolls.”
“All the gnolls outside were humans?”
Hmm. The ruins we had first entered were from a much later time. Were the gnolls outside the descendants of the gnolls that existed now?
I also had to keep in mind that, although the time and space were different, the gnolls outside had not changed.
“Yes. I was the only one in the temple serving the Goddess of Light who was able to escape the curse.”
As he said that, the priest let out a deep sigh.
“They were humans? It would have been a disaster if we had killed them. Did Yongyong recognize that?”
“No way.”
Yongyong had no such intent when it drove the gnolls away. It had merely seemed displeased by their rank smell.
In any case, Uncle seemed to believe the priest to some extent.
But I did not.
“How are you alive? There are so many gnolls around.”
“Thanks to the Goddess of Light’s protection, the cursed humans could not enter the temple.”
The priest spoke with a forlorn expression.
“I, too, have been sustaining myself on the food remaining in the temple. I thought my days to live were not many…….”
The priest was certainly gaunt. His skin clung to his bones, as though he had been starving for far more than a few days.
Combined with the halo around him, that made him seem even holier. The priest smiled faintly.
“Seeing that brothers like you have come, it seems the Goddess of Light has not abandoned me.”
“Should we rescue you from these ruins?”
“I apologize, but would you brothers help lift the curse on the others?”
“Is there a way?”
“There is a sacred relic beneath the temple that removes curses. You only need to touch it to the cursed people.”
The priest lifted the corners of his lips. It looked like an innocent smile.
“That is simple.”
When I nodded, the priest gestured to the right.
“You must be tired from coming all the way to the temple. Would you like to have a glass of water before going down?”
After meeting Uncle’s eyes, I walked forward. The instant I took a step, I faltered for a moment.
Uncle looked at me in puzzlement, but I went forward for now.
Then, when I stopped a few meters in front of the priest, I grabbed Uncle’s forearm as he tried to take another step.
“There is one thing I am curious about.”
“What are you curious about?”
Though I had asked in a casual tone, the priest still wore a smile.
“Are you certain you are the only one who was not cursed? You did not curse the people, did you?”
Uncle looked at me in puzzlement. His expression said that although the situation was suspicious, I was being overly sharp.
“What do you mean?”
The priest asked calmly. A chuckle escaped me. He was quite good at acting. It simply did not work on me.
I let out a sneer.
“Then why is there a trap in front of us that drops into the basement?”
“……!”
“And there is a passage behind the statue of the Goddess of Light.”
“H, how did you……?”
How? Spatial Sense, you bastard.
‘I had suspected something when I saw the name Decaying Temple…….’
If not for my ability, I would not have been able to be certain that he was a villain.
Of course, he could not even guess how I had found out.
‘It seems he even cast barrier magic to make it difficult to detect.’
I could sense objects placed around the trap. They seemed to have been set there to evade detection magic.
When such objects were present, even detection magic could not easily pinpoint the trap.
Of course, things were different for me. My Spatial Sense belonged to the realm of sensation, not magic.
I had no choice but to notice it instinctively.
“Damn. I thought it was strange that the Gate had transformed, yet everything was going so easily.”
Uncle clicked his tongue and stood behind me.
No explanation was necessary. Having traveled with me, Uncle knew my ability better than anyone.
We aimed our weapons at the priest.
“You do not seem to be a priest. A Black Mage?”
There were Black Mages among Hunters as well. It was a Rare Class, but not one people favored.
That was because of their skills. Although the skills one gained differed from person to person, they were inhumane, came with many conditions, and lacked destructive power.
“You are quick to catch on.”
The Black Mage whose identity had been exposed gave a sinister smile. He had been flustered earlier, but now he seemed confident instead.
“You would have been better off simply falling obediently…….”
The Black Mage could not finish speaking.
It was because I swung the Windflow Sword. A sharp wind shot out. The Black Mage hurriedly raised his hand.
CLANG—!
Wind Cleave struck a semitransparent black barrier. The priest frowned.
“You would have been better off…….”
I swung the Windflow Sword once more. The moment the wind shot out, the priest raised his arm and formed a barrier.
“You bastard! Let me talk—”
Yeah, get lost.
The opponent was a Black Mage. I had no intention of giving him time to talk.
“The next two meters are all traps.”
I immediately kicked off the ground and surged forward. I could easily jump over two meters.
“I will bestow hell upon you!”
I tensed slightly at the Black Mage’s grandiose shout.
“…….”
He vanished from before my eyes in an instant.
Magic? Teleportation? The Windflow Sword, which had lost its target, sliced through empty air.
‘He ran away?’
I had expected him to attack, but he had fled instead. All I felt was disbelief.
“This is bewildering.”
“Where did he go?”
“Would he not be below? This is a trap, and there are stairs behind the statue of the Goddess of Light.”
The route of pursuit seemed likely to be rather complicated, but that was fine.
I had a map hack.
“There is no path?”
Uncle, who had headed behind the statue of the Goddess of Light, tilted his head.
What I could feel through Spatial Sense was a staircase leading underground beneath the floor behind the statue of the Goddess of Light.
However, the entrance there was blocked by a stone floor.
“There must be some sort of hidden-door mechanism. How are we supposed to find it?”
Uncle began looking around and examining the area near the stone floor. He tapped the floor and touched the statue of the Goddess of Light.
I simply focused on Spatial Sense and found something.
“Hold on.”
“Did you find something?”
“I think it can be opened from inside.”
HUM-
I immediately opened Subspace toward the stairs leading underground. Uncle could not enter, but that did not matter.
I only had to open it for him.
Just as I had thought, there was something like a button on the wall beside the staircase, which I had faintly sensed through Spatial Sense.
When I pressed it firmly, the stone wall began to move with a RUMBLE.
“Come in.”
“Ha, as expected of a Spatialist.”
Uncle clapped in delight.
Well, other people would have searched themselves to exhaustion for a mechanism to open this door inside the temple…….
All I had to do was click open Subspace.
“Is that bastard down there?”
“He has not entered my senses yet.”
At the bottom of the stairs, which we hurried down, lay an old passage. Judging by the walls, it seemed to have been built at the same time as the temple.
Why had something like this been built beneath the temple? Was it an emergency exit?
As we walked, a musty smell began to rise. Then green mist surged toward us from deeper inside.
“Poison!”
I opened Subspace and put Yongyong inside, while taking out gas masks and antidotes at the same time.
“Uncle, take these!”
They were items the Association had given us during Gate training, which I had stored away.
For anyone else, even those would be a burden.
But I could put as much as I wanted into Subspace.
“Phew. That saved me.”
After drinking the antidote and putting on a gas mask, there was no problem. Not that I expected anything else from a Black Mage, but even his methods were dirty.
And that thought became certainty as we headed onward.
That was because traces of experiments appeared in the space beyond.
……More precisely, traces of those harmed by experiments.
“This is terrible.”
Chains hanging from the walls, human bones, unknown drugs, and flasks…….
It seemed certain that the Black Mage had transformed people into gnolls.
“He is worse than monsters. To turn people into monsters.”
Angry, Uncle ground his teeth. There was another door at the end of the room. I could tell through my senses that the space beyond was larger than this one.
When we opened the door, a massive cavern came into view. It was roughly half the size of the ruins aboveground.
‘To think there was a space this large beneath the temple…….’
It had a somewhat eerie atmosphere, and at its center stood a stone statue about five meters tall.
It looked as if a gnoll and a human had been mixed together.
A gnoll itself was a humanoid monster resembling both a human and a hyena, but should I say this one looked somewhat more human?
Then the Black Mage, who had been kneeling before the statue, spun toward us.
“H, how are you here already?”
I could see that he was flustered. It seemed he had been preparing something before the statue.
The flow of mana was ominous.
Even without knowing for certain, something difficult to handle would happen if that work was completed.
‘Does he take us for fools?’
I had absolutely no intention of waiting for his transformation time.
“We have to stop him!”
The moment I thought about it, I kicked off the ground. The Black Mage’s face contorted.
“You unbelievers!”
He stretched out his hand toward us. It was fine. Casting magic took time.
I was faster.
“Hellfire!”
But an unexpected situation occurred. Whatever technique he had used, he had somehow skipped the casting time and used magic.
Perhaps it was a trump card of some sort, because he smiled triumphantly. Could this be what he had been preparing here?
‘Wait. Hellfire?’
Could it be Hellfire?
The name of a skill I had only seen in games made a chill run through me. Already in the air, I had little hope of dodging it properly.
HUM-.
I hurriedly opened Subspace, but it had not expanded enough in time. It blocked half of the attack, but the other half reached me.
FWOOSH-!
His skill struck my body.
I hurriedly moved to deal with it…….
“?”
Why was this warm?
I looked at him with a dumbfounded expression, but he stood there agape in shock.
“H, how can you withstand Hellfire?”
Mm, yes.
This was A-Grade Fire Resistance.
I brushed the black flames clinging to my body away with my hand, but perhaps because it was actual fire, they did not go out easily.
“If you do not want to die, put this out.”
I decided to find a solution elsewhere. When I held the Windflow Sword before his neck, he hurriedly extinguished the black flames.
My clothes had been burned a little, but my body was fine.
“You bastard. Do you want to die? How is this Hellfire?”
“It is not Hell Fire. It is Hellfire…….”
“They are the same thing.”
“They are different…….”
“A Black Mage talking back?”
The nerve of him, scaring me.
I smacked the cheeky bastard hard on the back of the head, putting my feelings into it.