Middle region's 10th floor was a wide expanse of land that solely housed a low-levelled large kobold tribe. While the monsters were classified as low levelled creatures, they were the apex predators in their location, being the only existing species on the floor.
From a simple overall view, the 10th floor only consisted of the wide expanse of uneven land, a large kobold settlent and a bunch of tunnels that lead to the other floors. Due to so certain unknown reasons, a majority of these tunnels couldn't be accessed by players while so of the ones that could be, weren't available to the kobolds. Such a contradiction couldn't be explained by anyone, mostly because very few players had actually discovered this situation.
As very few players had reached the 10th floor, none of them knew that there existed a hidden floor that could only be reached by accessing one of the tunnels on the 10th floor. At the end of this tunnel was a large expanse of land rivaling the 10th floor's 'main area'. Within this zone was the vestiges of an unknown ancient civilization. The architectural style and culture of the civilization was unlike any seen either in the entirety of Infinite Realm or the real world. It was a little like the combination of Dwarven architectures, but missing the integrated statues, and dieval structures. At the sa ti, it had so sci-fi like incorporation into the art. This was very obvious in the design of the tallest building in this region, the central tower located at the middle of the region.
It was this exact place that Sato and Xue Yan ended up and also, it was the central tower that they aid for.
"Damn. What a huge door..." Xue Yan unconsciously exclaid as she stood in front of the tower alongside Sato.
From a distance, the door looked average as if it had noting special about it but as they closed in on it, the size steadily began to increase till they had closed in on it. Back when they were still far, Sato had expected the door to be huge. Considering the fact that the door of the two-storied building they went through was at least 3 tres tall, for the central building that looked to be the control centre of the place, it wasn't anything strange for it to be bigger; maybe at around 5 or 6 tres tall. If referring to Sato expecting the door to be bigger, he was right. But if referring to the size estimates he had made, Sato was by far wrong.
The door didn't stand at a height of 5 or 6 tres. Heck, it didn't even stand at 10 tres; it was way taller, reaching at least 25 tres! That's roughly the sa as a 4 storey building[1]! Even the width wasn't so simple, averaging at around 3.8 or 4 tres. If the door was already this big, one could only imagine the size of the tower. For it to have been visible throughout the entire zone, a height of 100 tres was barely enough. As for the real height of the building, Sato wasn't bothered to find out.
"There has to be a chanism for this." Sato said, with hope. Moving the previous 3 tres almost required his entire strength and now he was expected to push open a 25 tre tall building. What was he? Hercules?
Sato presud that no matter how absurd the ancient civilization was, a 25 tres tall door couldn't be easily pushed by them. This was on the basis that they could easily move a 3 tres tall door since they used such for a majority of their hos. After all, no one would make a do they can't open and for one that would be used in a ho, it had to be much easier to open. Of course, Sato didn't forget the thickness of the door which mattered most in respect to its weight. The last one was about 13 centitres thick so he guessed that this one would either be of the sa thickness or larger by 5 cm at most or even smaller, though the chances of being thinner was low. If a 3 tre could easily be pushed open by those guys, a 25 tres door would require at lest 2 or 3 of them using their full strength to do so and they would surely take quite so ti at that. In that case, it would be much easier and reasonable for the civilization to have a special chanism for opening it. As for whether their technological abilities reached such a level, Sato wasn't worried about it. Even his ancestors from the Old and Ancient Era had achieved such, much less an ancient civilization from a magical era.
"Look around for anything that looks like a clue or a secret key." Sato told Xue Yan as he began feeling the door and scanning it with his eyes.
The silver-coloured 25 tres tall door was a gigantic existence that one wouldn't easily see anywhere. If it weren't for here being a virtual world, it would be impossible to find such a sight elsewhere. On the surface of the door were strange black patterns akin to the mapping of the blood vessels in a humans body. They stretched from the left side of the door to the right side without any specific pattern.
"Over here!"
Not long after, Xue Yan called out to Sato, pointing at a spot just a few tres by the side of the door.
Sato arrived beside her and glanced at what she was pointing at. It turned out to be a black-steel rectangular plate that was embedded into the wall. In a way, it could be said to be similar to the na-plates back in the real world.
On the black plate were a few indecipherable words that Sato couldn't recognize nor read. It was like the writing of a 4 year old; a total mishmash of symbols and baffling strokes. Surprisingly though, as he focused on the words, the aning was automatically translated into his head as if he actually understood it.
"These are…Klaman runes!" Sato was stunned.
Back when he registered for a subclass at the Blacksmith guild, he had received his very first lecture from the Blacksmith master, Miss Trevale[Chpt. 19]. At that ti, Sato had learnt that runes were divided into two categories; the Racial runes and Ancient runes. Just as its na implied, the Racial runes were specific to different races. There was the Elvish, Draconic and even the kobolds had their own variation. For the humans, it was the Gregorian and Klaman runes. Miss Trevale didn't speak on the Gregorian but did so for Klaman. Apparently, Klaman was the easiest of the two and it also had the special feature of being self-translated. In simple terms, one doesn't need to learn it to know what it ans. All you have to do is just stare at it for awhile and the words would automatically be translated within one's head. Sato didn't know why this was so but this special feature made the language very handy as custors could avoid getting cheated when purchasing goods[2].
"'One with heart and mind. Beside the great divide lies the trail to life. Life gives life but with life cos death. Beware of the one who speaks from within.' What the hell is all this jumbo nonsense?" Xue Yan asked with a strange look on her face. She had heard riddles and read dharmic statents but the words displayed on the plaque was like a mixture of different topic that didn't relate.
Sato glanced at the words and re-read the ntal translation again. In the end, he couldn't figure out the aning as the words were too esoteric.
'One with heart and mind…does it an we should relax and not be worried? Beside the great divide lies the trail to life…what the heck is the 'great divide'?' Sato used a palm to massage his forehead as a frown ford on his face. Of all the things he hated, riddles were at the top.
"Wait a minute. 'Beside the great divide'…"
Without wasting ti, Sato walked towards the centre of the door. There was a long straight line that divided the door into two equal parts. This was the mark that resulted at the points the two doors joined. For a 25 tres high door,this line was equally 25 tres long.
"The great divide…?" Sato stared at the line in thought.
"You think that's what those lines were referring to?" Xue Yan asked, dumbfounded.
Sato half nodded."It's quite possible. There are no instructions to opening the door and the closest we have to such are those words on the plaque. If we presu that they are referring to opening this door then this should be the 'great divide'."
"'Beside the great divide lies the trail to life'. If this is the great divide then what is the aning of the rest?" Xue Yan placed her hand on the line as she asked what was on her mind.
'One with heart and mind. Beside the great divide lies the trail to life. Life gives life but with life cos death. Beware of the one who speaks from within'.
"'One with heart and mind' probably ans we should relax or sothing. As for the last two sentences, it feels more like a warning." Sato replied.
"A warning?"
"Yes." Sato nodded. "'Beside the great divide lies the trail to life' in other words, behind this door is the supposed 'trail to life'. But at the sa ti, it says that life gives life yet life cos with death. What confirms this even more is the line 'Beware of the one who speaks from within'. If I'm correct, this tower isn't the political centre of this civilization. It's a seal."
"A seal?!" Xue Yan was shocked. She couldn't get why Sato reached such a conclusion but as she recalled his words alongside the words on the plaque, she felt that Sato's conclusion had so truth to it.
The statent 'Life gives life but life cos with death' was like a warning. Recalling that the plaque ntioned sothing about the trail of life being behind the door, going past the door and discovering this 'life' would co with its own drastic consequences. In another way, it could be understood that 'life' was sealed behind the door and is quite dangerous because it cos with 'death'. What was even more strange was the line 'Beware of the one who speaks from within'. It was most likely possible that there was sothing else inside, sothing that could communicate. In a way, this thing could be the previously ntioned 'life'.
"Are we still going in?" Xue Yan asked with a low voice. She wasn't the gaming type of person nor the horror movie kind of individual. Facing a scenario that looked like one off a horror movie made her feel a little scared.
"Of course." Sato replied calmly. "Don't tell you're scared? It's just a ga. The worse that could happen would be a small frightful mont. The IR helt regulates our brainwave pattern at incredible rates. The very second anything harmful is about to happen to us, it would automatically shutdown and disconnect us from the server."
The VR gaming industry had steadily improved in both quality and quantity. In other to be the leading figures, most VR ga developers incorporate new aspects into their ga, adding a more mysterious plot and new ga elents.
Once before, a company had made a horror ga, so scary that it was advised by certain psychological institutions that no one should play it. Even the developers had placed an extre warning label on the product. But humans being curious refused to do so. With the improvents in VR technology, gas beca more realistic and this horror ga was no different. As such, the ga happened to be so scary that 3 players who couldn't handle the scare, had actually died in reality. One, after playing the ga 2 days straight, died from a sudden surge of thanatophobia that lead to a cardiogenic shock. Another died from excessive fear and anxiety that lead to both a heart attack and epilepsy. The third one experienced SUDEP(Sudden Unexpected Death in Epilepsy)[2] which was linked to so respiratory conditions the victim had suffered from, which the doctors claid to have activated due to extre fear. In summary, all 3 players died from fear. What was even more scary was the fact that 87 other players had suffered minor issues, ranging from a brief heart failure to minor epilepsy, to a simple faint. After that, the ga was jointly banned by most states and the company was forced to pay damage fees despite having placed a warning label. Following that period, the VR gaming industry took a big hit as most horror gas were rescinded from the market and a majority of gas had to redo their plot, eliminating most horror related incidents and even reducing the hideous looks of their monsters.
This went on until a new design for both the VR cabin and helt was launched, enabling the ga's OS(Operating System) to be able to perform a health-related check on the user and automatically shut down the ga if the user is experiencing any health-related problems in-ga. Compared to the helt's feature, the cabin's was more advanced, being equipped with even first-aid capabilities both to handle respiratory issue and cardio- and neuro-related problems.
'Sadly, I can't afford it yet.' Sato sighed.
"Let's try and open it first. We can worry about the rest later." Sato said.
"Okay, but how do we do that?"
Moving his hand towards the mark, Sato replied her,"Place your hand on the line and keep a straight mind."
Xue Yan then did as Sato said, moving closer to him and standing before the line alongside Sato. It was a straight line and Sato had already placed a hand on the line. Because she was shorter than he was, Sato had placed his hand a bit above and left so space for Xue Yan to do the sa below. Xue Yan then placed her hand on the line at a point just beneath where Sato placed his and relaxed her mind. The two were infinitely close to each other and thanks to the future of IR's reality impression, they could get a whiff of their scents. This was the closest Xue Yan had stayed with a man that wasn't related to her so she inevitably had a visible reaction on her face. Luckily for her though, Sato's attention was only at the door.
The two went on like this for 5 seconds with Xue Yan getting redder by the second but nothing had changed with the door.
"Nothing's happening." Xue Yan said with an awkward tone.
"One with heart and mind…" Sato frowned as he mumbled those words in thought.
"Try thinking about opening the door." Sato said with a low voice.
"Okay." Xue Yan nodded then did as Sato asked.
3 seconds in and nothing had happened.
Xue Yan was about to make a comnt when suddenly, a brilliant surge of light burst forth from the straight line, devouring their figures. This went on for 4 seconds before the surge slowly dispersed. As it did so, the spot where Sato and Xue Yan stood was revealed to be empty as silence pervaded the entire area.
Sato and Xue Yan had disappeared.
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