As instructors led the way to the north corner of the academy, Senior Instructor Hou Jinchang glanced back at Chun Yeowun who was following them.
‘This is really amazing.’
Hou Jingchang was astounded. In these three years, he also trained hard and achieved the end stage of being a grandmaster level warrior. As an instructor, he did not want to feel ashamed against these fast-growing cadets. However, Yeowun had grown much stronger than him now.
‘Is it the blood?’
The Chun family ruled the cult for hundreds of years. Hou Jinchang became curious as to what kind of change Chun Yeowun would bring to the cult. Soon, they reached the ragged building.
Demon Seal Cave.
The building looked like it was going to crumble down at any moment.
‘You will pass the fifth test easily at your level, Master.’
Ko Wanghur, who had passed the fifth test, advised him as such. They said that the cave had many traps and tricks that required a high sense of energy to pass. This was why it required one to be at the established grandmaster level.
‘The cave is a bit scary inside.’
Mun Ku said there were no light sources after entering. It was required to pass through the cave by only relying on the sense of energy.
”But I heard a weird crying sound inside.”
“Huh? Mun Ku, you heard it too?”
“...I heard it too.”
Bakgi also exclaimed, “What?!”
‘Was it not my imagination?!’
Ko Wanghur and Mun Ku also flinched in shock. Three of them claimed that they heard a mysterious cry the entire time they took the test. It gave them chills, but they couldn’t feel anything as they passed through the cave, so they thought the sound was their imagination.
“This is the entrance.”
Hou Jinchang opened the ragged door. Cold air began to blow from inside, proving that the cave was larger than expected. When Yeowun walked in, there was a staircase that led into the basement. It was very dark further in.
One of the instructors then pushed the wooden pillar next to the stairs, and the sound of something moving was heard from below. Yeowun heard that there was machinery installed below already, so he just nodded. Hou Jinchang explained, “The fifth test only requires you to pass through it. You have to pass through various traps just by relying on your senses. There is an exit on the east end. We will wait for two hours there.”
“So, there is a time limit to this?”
“It will only take maybe an hour to two hours. But if you can’t come out within the timeframe, we will stop the machines and enter to see if you got into an accident.”
The accidents killed three cadets already. These traps were very dangerous. Instructors then checked Yeowun’s body to see if he had any tools to start a fire.
“Are you bringing that blade inside?”
“Yes, sir.”
No light sources were allowed, but weapons were okay since they were needed to defend against machinated traps.
“Let’s check it.”
Yeowun handed the blade over. It was the blade created by Ou Sunong. Hou Jinchang took up the blade. The blade had writing engraved that said ‘Butterfly Dance’ as it was requested by Yeowun.
“Good blade.”
It wasn’t created with cold steel, but it was quite sharp. It was very close to Submeng’s Crazy Blade. Hou Jinchang handed it back to Yeowun and pointed at the staircase.
“Then you should start.”
“Yes, sir.”
“I wish you luck.”
Hou Jinchang wished him luck, but he wasn’t worried. The traps were meant for grandmaster level warriors, so it was a piece of cake for a superior warrior like Chun Yeowun. Yeowun then walked down the staircase. As the instructors walked out and closed the door, everything turned pitch dark. He was supposed to use his senses to check where it was open and where it was closed, but he didn’t need to rely on that.
‘Nano, activate night vision mode.’
[Activating night vision mode.]
With Nano’s voice, Yeowun’s eyes adapted to the darkness, and he could clearly see the staircase. It was a very old stone staircase that was severely worn out.
‘It’s pretty far down.’
Yeowun kept on walking down. As he walked down, the air grew more chilly. After he walked down the height of a four-story building, there was an end. He saw the entrance to the cave.
‘What is this smell?’
Yeowun caught the disgusting smell at the entrance. It smelled like oil and blood, but a lot of other things were mixed in that and it was hard to recognize what smell it was.
‘Let’s go in.’
As he walked into the corridor, he felt a slight breeze. It seemed like this way led to the exit. If one used their senses, the wind guided the way to the exit. And when he went in, the wall of the cave was smooth, indicating that it was created artificially.
‘Well, they even installed traps here.’
Yeowun did not need to waste time. He saw exit clearly in his eyes, so he just needed to go there. Yeowun then used a running skill to run through.
“Huh?”
But when he took his step off from the ground, the wall trembled and sharp spears were thrown at Yeowun. He swung his hand, and all the spears broke down before they reached him.
‘So, this was how.’
A wrong step and one could trigger a trap. Yeowun then sighed and changed his plan to walk slowly out. And after a few steps, another trap was triggered again. The stone that he stepped on was pushed down and the entire ceiling from about ten steps in all directions dropped down on him.
“Oh!”
Yeowun then quickly ran through to get away. He would have been squashed by the ceiling if he had been late. With such a trap in such darkness, it was easy to see why even grandmaster level warriors were killed by these. It was still dangerous even when Yeowun could clearly everything. Yeowun then walked carefully. After looking, he was able to identify the trap triggers. Most of them were made to trigger when taking the wrong steps.
‘I just need to be careful of those.’
As Yeowun had help from the night vision, he was able to avoid stepping on those triggers. And after moving through a bit, Yeowun realized something was off. He wasn’t worried about getting lost since he was moving toward the breeze, but there were more directions in this cave. There were other open areas that were connected to others. Without the breeze, one could get lost by going the other way.
‘It feels like I’ve seen this place somewhere...’
It was his first time here, but he felt like he’d seen this somewhere. After thinking about the reason while he moved, he then finally came to a conclusion.
“Wait. Nano, do you remember the map you saved from collecting those shiny stones in the prison cave?”
[Yes, Master. It is saved in the data.]
‘Show me.’
[Yes, Master.]
With Nano’s voice, Yeowun saw the augmented reality drawing the map that was saved. It was the map that was at the back of those shiny stones that had breathing skills written on the front.
“It was here!”
Yeowun was astonished. The map was the map of this Demon Seal Cave. It matched exactly with the route he took to walk down here.
‘Nano, what do you think?’
[The shape of the current cave matches that of the map. We are currently located at this point on the map.]
The map then showed a red dot, indicating the location of Yeowun’s current position.
“Oh. That’s cool.”
From looking at the map, it seemed like it was easy to move to the location where the map was pointing to. He was in the middle of the fifth test, but he was curious. It was the map that was written at the back of the shiny stones left by Father Chun Ma. It was likely that something was hidden there.
‘I have enough time.’
Only a few minutes had passed. Yeowun decided to check the map.
‘I have to go back.’
The location was the far right tunnel at the first location. But with a map, it was easy to move through complicated tunnel easily. And it was after a while he walked through the cave.
“Huh?”
He heard the faint sound of an animal growling from somewhere. It was too clear to think of it as his imagination. It seemed like it was the sound that Mun Ku and Ko Wanghur had heard.
‘I don’t feel anything though.’
He couldn’t feel any movement. Yeowun then focused back on the map and moved.
‘So many traps even when it’s not a way out.’
He kept on moving through, and there were now more traps installed on the way than on the way to the exit. After walking past the traps carefully, Yeowun was finally at the location indicated on the map.
“This...”
The place was blocked off by a large blue wall. And there was giant writing on it that covered the entire blue stone wall.
“Seal?”