“…Huh? What… huh?” Skaya’s illusion stuttered. She was unable to process what had just happened. It was a good thing for Seo Jun-ho that she’d suffered a mental blow. 

This is really the end. He let out a sharp breath and mustered the last of his strength. His legs were shaky, but they stood firm in supporting him. As he limped toward her, Skaya slowly raised her head. 

“…I’ll kill you.” Her eyes were red as blood poured from her eyes. “I swear, I’ll kill you.” 

An immense amount of magic gathered into her hands. Even if he were at his peak condition, he wouldn’t be able to block it easily. Seo Jun-ho knew perfectly well what it was.

So the illusion can also use Destruction Ray. 

The magic compressed and condensed, forming something within her hands. It sparkled brilliantly, like the universe was in her hands. It looked beautiful, but it would completely destroy anything it touched. 

“Contractor. That energy… It seems considerably dangerous.” The Frost Queen sounded worried. Seo Jun-ho nodded weakly. 

I came this far, but I still have to use this. He didn’t want to, if possible. If he used it now, he’d be bedridden for at least two days. 

“Hup!” The magic in his body started to pour out. Unlike before, he didn’t leave a single drop. His body started to ache. 

Fucking burnout. The exhaustion from using up all his magic started to set in. But he couldn’t stop there. He continued to pull out his magic, creating a dark energy and condensing it. A weapon made of Darkness slowly formed in his hands.

“…Deathside.”

It was called the Death God’s Scythe and was made by compressing Dark energy together. In other words, it was highly inefficient. But if he wanted to break through Skaya’s eight mana shields and her Destruction Ray, he needed an energy that would ‘ignore’ and ‘disdain’. And Darkness was the only one that could do that. 

This is the best weapon I have right now. One hit was much stronger than Law of Life. Seo Jun-ho slowly raised the scythe. 

“Die!” Skaya released Destruction Ray, and Seo Jun-ho swung the scythe. A violent noise tore through the air as the two energies clashed. 

“…Haa, haa.”The last of his strength left him. Seo Jun-ho let go of Deathside, and it dissipated into black smoke. “I’m really glad you’re just an illusion.”

“……” Skaya silently looked down at her chest. A large cut ran from her shoulder to her side. Blood started to pour out. 

If it were the real Skaya, I wouldn’t be the one left standing. 

Deathside was the peak embodiment of the Darkness element and was a weapon that destroyed everything equally. The illusion’s Destruction Ray had been extinguished because it had been weaker than Seo Jun-ho’s technique. If the real Skaya had been the one to attack him, things would be vastly different. 

“……” Skaya slowly raised her head, sensing her own impending death. She smiled softly as blood poured from her eyes and mouth. “…Jun-ho, we’ll be waiting.”

With those words, all the illusions in the cavern disappeared. The blood and broken walls dissipated, returning to their original appearance. 

“Those illusions were dirty to the end. To think that they’d say that.”

“…They’re smart, like their originals. They know what to say to make me feel like shit,” Seo Jun-ho muttered flatly. He knew that Skaya’s words were the illusion’s last attempt to make him despair, but it didn’t stop his insides from churning. “Haa… This is really fucking hard.”

The Trial was over, but his current state wasn’t good. His broken arm and rib had been part of the illusions, so they’d returned to normal; the magic and stamina he’d used, however, had been real. 

Seo Jun-ho stumbled and leaned against a wall to prevent himself from passing out. 

“Are you okay? Go to the rest room right now…!”

“Not yet… The clear message hasn’t appeared yet…”

Thankfully, it appeared right after he said that. 

Of course, he chose ‘Go’. Seo Jun-ho quickly spoke. 

“Hey, Frost…”

“Speak.”

“I’m gonna… sleep. So…” He waved his hand, as if asking for something, then collapsed where he stood. The Frost Queen huffed as she looked down at him. 

“Does he consider me to be his servant?” He was such a shameless human. “But I suppose taking care of vassals is the duty of a monarch.” She sighed. 

The Frost Queen rolled up her sleeves and pulled him to the bed, complaining the whole time. 

* * *

“……” Seo Jun-ho slowly opened his eyes like a patient waking from a deep sleep. His stomach rumbled loudly. Just how long was I asleep?

He was so hungry that his stomach hurt. He immediately went to the refrigerator and started eating. 

“Phew, I finally feel alive.” He finished his meal and checked on the sleeping Frost Queen, then inspected himself.

I really don’t have any injuries. The violent battle had all happened in the space of an illusion, but his body was still stiff. His magic, stamina, and mental energy had all been drained.

“I’m going to rest for today.” The good thing about the Cave of Trials was that you didn’t have to rush to finish it. If you were injured, you could stay comfortably in the rest room until you were healed. As he rolled back onto the bed, the Frost Queen slowly sat up from her pile of tissues and yawned quietly. 

“You’re awake.”

“Yeah. How long was I out?”

“Around twenty hours.”

“…Damn.” He’d slept a lot. “But considering I used Deathside, that’s not bad.”

“The scythe, you mean? It was as fierce as ever.” 

He’d used Deathside against the Frost Queen too, but of course, she hadn’t fallen as easily as Skaya’s illusion. 

“I thought I’d be out for two whole days, so twenty hours is pretty good. My body doesn’t feel that bad either.”

“……” The Frost Queen silently floated over to him and poked his arms and chest with her finger. 

“Hey! Ow! Why are you doing that?” He shouted. She sighed. 

“Why are you pretending to be okay when your body is in this state?”

“…If I rest for today, I’ll be all better.” He was confident because his stamina and magic recovered quickly. 

“Don’t be stubborn. Anyways, this Cave of Trials is quite fun in its own way.” The Frost Queen took a seat at the edge of the bed. “How many Trials are left?”

“I don’t know exactly. But most people think that it stops at level 10.”

“Level 10… So there are still seven Trials left that are as perverse as yesterday’s?”

“Yes.” Seo Jun-ho nodded.

Gray, the Administrator, said he’d raise the difficulty of the Trials and change their contents a bit… But except for a few trivial things, the Trials weren’t very different so far. It’s driving me crazy. I’d rather that the ball drop earlier than later. He was starting to worry because the Cave of Trials was progressing more easily than he expected. 

“How do you feel? You have not seen your comrades in a long time.”

“It doesn’t matter. They were just illusions.” He suddenly remembered something. “…Well, I’m a bit sad that I didn’t get to meet my parents in the Trial,” he muttered. They’d shown up the first time he’d done the Phantom Trial. It had been so long since he’d seen them that he’d cried. 

“Your parents? Why would they appear in the Phantom Trial?”

“What do you mean why? They’re both dead.” The Frost Queen felt ashamed at his blunt response.

“Huh…? Ah, I… I seemed to have made a mistake…”

“It doesn’t matter. It was a long time ago.”

“…That’s a good thing, I suppose.” She pat Seo Jun-ho’s shoulder with her small hand. “I, too, lost my parents at a young age, so I can sympathize.”

“Really? How old were you?”

“Six.”

“…What? That’s worse than me though.” He was surprised. He looked at her with pity. 

“There is no need to look at me so. It has been a long time for me as well.”

“…Yeah. We’re in the same boat.” He seemed to find common ground with the Frost Queen in unexpected places. It made him frustrated at times, but sometimes it was also comforting.

“What is the next Trial?”

“…Insomnia.” He got giddy just from thinking about it. “You have to stay awake for ten days without sleeping.”

“What? Ten?! What a difficult Trial.”

“It’s the Trial that makes people go back.” Staying up for a day or two was pretty easy. Even non-players could do that. But ten days… That’s on a different level. 

You would have to stay awake for 240 hours, giving up the most important of the three basic human necessities. 

“The Guiness World Record for staying awake is eleven days straight.”

“Ah, they must have been a player with amazing willpower.”

“Actually, it was a normal person.” Of course, the results of the reckless challenge hadn’t been good. In an interview the next day, the challenger had a noticeably decreased memory retention and attention span and had confessed to hearing auditory hallucinations. 

(TN: This may be referring to Randy Gardner.)

Since I’m a player, I didn’t have those kinds of setbacks last time. But that didn’t mean that the Insomnia Trial was easy. It was the Trial that sent the most number of people back. 

“I’m going back to sleep.”

“Wait. Has it not been less than an hour since you awoke?”

“I have to sleep a lot when I can.” He had to be as sharp as he could before he stays up for ten days.

* * *

Seo Jun-ho slept for another thirteen hours. His eyes opened a few times, but he forced himself back asleep. 

“Wow, I feel great.” Seo Jun-ho’s eyes sparkled. How long had it been since he’d taken a break and slept this well? He suddenly stopped, a peculiar look on his face. “Wait… Really, I think it’s been a few years since I’ve rested like this.”

He’d technically slept in the ice for 25 years, but his body had been so worn out that it didn’t feel refreshing. 

“This is the first time I’ve rested this well since the last time I challenged the Cave of Trials.” In Gray’s words, it had been 28 years and 7 months. Since then, he hadn’t taken a single day off from hunting and slept a maximum of six hours a day. 

“Are you ready?”

“Yes. Everything’s perfect.” Seo Jun-ho nodded confidently. “Let’s go.”

He stepped out of the door. 

“I wish to continue to the 4th level.”

Seo Jun-ho once again felt that the Gate was too kind to the players. “But if you’re gonna be this nice, at least lower the difficulty a bit,” he grumbled. He nodded. 

“Proceed.”

A large hologram timer appeared on the cavern wall. 

It counted the remaining time that Seo Jun-ho had to stay awake.