The gods didn't reply, and my chest tightened more and more as the silence persisted. I could feel pressure building within my throat and behind my eyes.
â¬The Advocate of Confidentiality sighs in resignation.â
â¬The Advocate of Confidentiality advises that the main lead is not dead.â
What...? Tesilid is alive? All the drama I just went through had been rendered meaningless, but I didn't care.
"Really?!" I shouted as I unconsciously stood up.
â¬The Advocate of Confidentiality informs that the main lead in this Loop can't be killed by something of this level.â
They answered my burning question, but something about their response sounded strange. Unfortunately, I wasn't given an opportunity to ask about it.
â¬The Advocate of Confidentiality walks away to reflect on themselves.â
Never would I have guessed that it would be Lord Confidentiality who would help me out. Thanking them with all my heart, I lost myself to my thoughts, wanting to find concrete evidence that Tesilid was alive and well. Since he happened to be sharing my inventory with me, I counted the number of available potions and realized that there had been a significant decrease in the stockpile I had stored away, which meant he had engaged in a fierce battle while I was asleep.
But the number isn't decreasing anymore. Lord Confidentiality had defied his work ethic to tell me that Tesilid was currently alive, so the reasonable conclusion I could make was that he had won. It was shocking that Tesilid had defeated an SS-class boss alone, but perhaps the monster's level had decreased when I vanished, since it had been ridiculously overpowered in order to kill me. If this theory was correct, then the right thing to do would be to stay away from Tesilid.
After all, the two of us were going to be hunted for another month according to the user DemonicCreatureCook, who told me how he had been chased and his lover killed after breaching the boundaries of the genre. The system was bound to devise some unexpected and outrageous attacks to kill both me and Tesilid, so it would be best to stop the difficulty from being adjusted to my level. That meant there were two means of survivalâone was to wait in this cave for a month while Tesilid survived on his own, and the other one was...
"I have a question, Lord Voice. Can the Genre Change Voucher be used after a breach?"
â¬The Voice that Shapes the World hands this question over to the head of operations.â
â¬The Executive of Creative Economy comments that it is allowed.â
There, I had the answer. Now, I just needed to think of a way to make the money I needâ
But the system wasn't about to cut me any slack.
â¬Â«System» Preparation time over. [Safe Zone] will disintegrate in five seconds, followed by automatic participation in a religious ritual.â
What the hell is this? A dungeon that forces me to join a religious ritual? Five seconds passed as I attempted to make sense of this strange notice, and before I knew it, the walls of the cave surrounding me began to slide away, revealing a new scene. Now, I was standing in the middle of a long road within a barren land.
"What is this place?"
â¬Â«System» Event dungeon [The Pilgrim's Path] activated.â
The name alone gave away what it was going to make me do, and the system delegated the exact duty I expected.
â¬Â«Quest» [Pilgrimage of Enlightenment (40-day course)]
You must pass 12 gates as you walk through [The Pilgrim's Path]. Enlightenment awaits you at the end of your journey.
Reward Upon Success: Dungeon exit.
Failure Penalty: Unable to exit dungeon.â
Although I was slightly taken aback by this random quest, my mind was still clear, so I took a moment to organize my thoughts. I would not be able to leave the dungeon until I completed the pilgrimage and the quest was a forty-day course, which meant I was going to be trapped in here for sixteen days since the dungeon time was two and a half times slower than reality.
I'm going to be safe here for the next sixteen days, but I wonder if Tesilid is going to be okay... But it didn't seem like I was in the place to worry about someone else.
â¬The Voice that Shapes the World clears their throat.â
Lord Voice?
â¬The Voice that Shapes the World reveals that the dungeon difficulty has been set to [Hell Mode] because he had to make up for the lack of plausibility when he triggered the dungeon sink.â
What...?
I was still processing Lord Voice's message when I heard and felt something unexpected.
Clank, clank. Clatter.
Cold metal tightened around my wrists and ankles. The handcuffs and shackles were connected to long chains attached to something oddâthere was a life-size marble statue of a person at the end of the chains instead of a metal ball that would often be used as a weight.
I took a moment to take in the statue, which was brilliantly rendered, the figure of an angle bound to a cross. I tried tugging on the chains and realized that the statue was certainly as heavy as it looked, so I activated an Ultimate Skill that was perfect for occasions like these.
â¬Â«System» Caution. [The Force of a Queen] not applicable to the target.â
There were seemingly many restrictions to this religious ritual.
How am I supposed to finish the pilgrimage with that thing attached to me? And apparently, being bound to a statue wasn't the only thing added to increase the difficulty of the quest.
Whoosh!
In a matter of seconds, a random snowstorm swept through the land, instantly covering the entire area with snow and nearly blinding me with the ferociousness of the weather. Feeling frost on my eyelashes, the opinion that the dungeon was safer than the outside world started to fade away.
Can I really survive here for forty days?
â¬The Critic for Balance is satisfied with how excellent the balance is.â
"Whew..."
Standing around and bemoaning my situation wasn't going to make the dungeon any easier on me, so the only choice I had was to follow the rules of the dungeon as long as I was here.
With my mind made up, I removed various winter gear from my inventory and armed myself with a fur cloak, gloves, a scarf, ear muffs, and fur boots. I then grabbed the chain attached to the statue with both of my hands and began to pull.
"Ha, ha..."
â¬The Voice that Shapes the World is devastated by the twist in the planning of this dungeon because it was never crafted to give you a hard time.â
Each step was difficult, which made me wonder whether this is how Tesilid felt every day he was forced to trudge forward on his merciless path with the weight of the world on his shoulders.
You have to be safe for the next sixteen days, Tez. I filled my mind with Tesilid's face and the price of the Genre Change Voucher as I slowly pushed along the path.
I arrived at the first gate sooner than I had expected. The snowstorm cleared a little, which improved my line of vision, revealing a grand triumphal arch. The way of attaining a pass for gates like this was standardâone had to defeat the gatekeeper. As expected, a handsome older man in a suit of armor stepped out. However, there was a strange and oppressive energy about him, which made me think that he may not be human, a deduction that turned out to be directly on point.
"Welcome, heretic saintess."
The voice echoed with the unique resonance of a fallen soul, a spirit who seemed like he had once been a saint of Order and Goodness based on the way he spoke. I narrowed my eyes as I looked at my opponent, for something about him seemed strikingly familiar despite the fact that we'd never met before.
Shwing.
That was when the sword he drew caught my eyeâit looked just like Tesilid's holy sword, Libra.
"Wait... Are you...?"
Noticing the shock in my eyes, he confidently introduced himself. "You must've recognized me. That's right. I'm Balkus Odrek, former master of the holy sword and one of the eleven saints within the religious order of Strict Order and Goodness."
"The master of the demonic sword, Ilion's grandfather!"
He was an embarrassment to the Odrek family because he'd slaughtered hundreds with the demonic sword. The moment I mentioned his name, veins popped up on the old man's wrinkly face as two streams of aura ripped past my left and right in close proximity.
"Fight with everything you've got, heretic saintess."
â
Tesilid's expression changed countless times as the Great Bible of Truth explained Ailette's whereabouts. The feelings of shock, anger, and concern churned inside of him, and it took a significantly long time before he could regain his composure.
"A place where she must endure the challenges given by the greatest holy saints in history," he repeated. He knew she was strong, yet his heart overpowered his mind when it came to Ailette. Unable to simply wait until she returned, he looked at the bible again with a stiff face and said, "I shall ask the next question."
"What do you wish to know?"
"How do I save Ailette Rodeline?"
However, there was a miscalculation in Tesilid's interpretation of the situation. For so many years, the world had despised and tortured him, often by threatening the lives of those he cared about. Hence, his countless years of experience made him assume that the world was attempting to take Ailette from him.
Having already defeated Leviathion, the only thing left for him to do was conquer the dungeon sink she had fallen into, which is why he sought to learn how he could save her from it now. It was a question he chose with extreme meticulousness because he thought it could enlighten him on all the information he needed to know about the dungeon, from how to enter it to how he could bring her out.
But... The book's response was completely different from what he had expected because the "threat" from the Great Bible of Truth's perspective wasn't the dungeon sink.
"You must collect at least five hundred thousand gold."
The bible provided him a solution to the real problem that plagued Ailetteâhow to solve the genre breach penalty.
After staring blankly at the book, which hadn't revealed any more information, Tesilid spat out, "What?" He was completely baffled by the sudden mention of something so materialistic. He was supposed to make money?
What does this mean?