The ancient gate stood like a behemoth in front of the impressive yet mottled mansion. It is connected and supported by a thick wall side by side as the gate lied close in front of Jeemin.

Reflected in his eyes were an aged signboard.

[Welcome to the Mansion of Traps - Test of Intuition and Mind]

When an idea popped up in his mind, he immediately felt that he have forgotten something important.

He frowned as the recollection was like at the tip of his tongue - but he wasn't able to put his mind on it.

After staring blankly at the signboard, he sighed as he still can't remember what was the important thing he have forgotten.

Something that could have made crossing the desert easier...

Now that he thought of it, he felt terrified as his eyes widened, feeling that it was better not to recall it in the first place.

He turned away from the signboard and faced the rest of the party.

Since I was going to do 'that', then I don't care anymore.

"If you still want to follow me after all that happened, then follow me," he spoke languidly as his eyelids drooped down.

Jin Hyoon frowned momentarily but didn't speak a word.

Li Jing and Claire nodded while Dmitri stared at his own left hand.

Jeemin pushed the gate open with the greatsword as its rusty hinges creaked.

The gate opened surprisingly smooth different from what he expected.

Jeemin gulped after entering when he swept his gazed from left to right.

The left side was field with gray weeds with hundreds of hundreds of bear traps awaiting for its next victim. It was the same for the right, except that there was a tall tree with orange leaves all over its branches.

Below the tree were dozens of rusty bear traps, lying prone open.

He immediately dispelled the idea of going around the mansion, doing so is only courting death.

They walked carefully on the strangely clean pavement, with grey tiles adorning it.

A wide wooden stairs greeted them as they got closer to the mansion's front door filled with cobwebs.

Jeemin caught a whiff of the smell of the old wooden stairs and the aged mansion in front of him.

He lifted his head up and was amazed how huge the mansion was.

As he was about to step on the wooden stairs leading towards the wide door, the door suddenly swung open from the inside.

"Be careful—"

A strong suction force suddenly swallowed them as he was about warn them.

Blag. Dag. Thud.

Several sounds of something falling on a wooden floor echoed on the still and silent surroundings.

"Ack!"

Jin Hyoon rubbed her butt as the front door slammed shut.

Dmitri rubbed his face and stood up with an unusual terrified eyes while Li Jing and Claire dusted off their clothes.

When Jeemin was about to stand up and picked up the greatsword beside him, he suddenly groaned in pain.

His face contorted as he held his head from pain. Veins popped up from his forehead, his eyes were bloodshot as he scraped his scalp with his hand from pain.

With a kneeling posture, he slammed his head down on the floor as he gritted his teeth from the pain.

It was pain, unimaginable pain. He felt like someone was playing with his brain, squishing it and pressing it randomly.

The rest of the party was alarmed at his condition and went towards him.

"What happened?" Claire asked.

Blood dripped down from Jeemin's nose as deep folds appeared from both sides of his eyes from the pain throbbing inside his head.

He hammered his head with his hand to ease the pain but ended up making it worse. He used the back of his hand to hit his jaw as his brain juggled up and down.

The world before him tilted from left and right as he went dizzy. But the pain went away as he recovered from the light-headedness. He discovered that the veins on his arm was wildly pulsing, his palm felt hot as he clenched it.

When the scorching heat coming from his palm went away, he spat out a mouthful of air.

He stood up and calmed himself down as he thought, what the hell just happened.

"Are you okay?" Claire asked worriedly.

Do I look like I am? He thought then frowned. Why am I agitated?

After remembering what Mili said to him about the Origin, he said, "It's just the side effects."

Without explaining further, he examined the wide hall in front of him. The staircase backdrop was adorned with what seemed to be a red carpet. But its appearance became a telltale of its age. What once a magnificent red carpet was now gray.

The design of the interior of the mansion was... weird. The staircase backdrop completely blocked anything beyond the ground floor.

Leaving the rest of the party with only the left and right doors to explore.

An old chandelier were hanging on the high ceilings as dust pervaded the room.

Hyoon was walking leftward and stared at a wooden door full of cobwebs. The door knob was missing and the hole was completely black, sucking away any sources of light, making the mansion even dimmer.

As Jeemin was looking at the wide windows with strange designs, the dim light reflected from his eyes, he caught sight of Hyoon that was about to touch the right door.

"Don't," he said as he ran forward while dragging the greatsword.

"Let me."

He went past Jin Hyoon and cautiously peeked at the hole where the door knob was supposed to be.

When he determined that he can't see anything from the hole, he slowly pushed the door open.

But as soon as he made contact with the door, it suddenly swung open.

He was startled at first and instinctively put the surface of the greatsword in front of him.

When nothing happened, he cautiously scanned what was inside.

A narrow tunnel with walls that had uneven surfaces and damp ragged ground greeted him.

He held the greatsword in front of him, using it as a shield and slowly trod forward.

Kak, kak, tak, tik, tik, tik..

When both of his feet made contact with the damp ground, a sound of series of gears turning suddenly came from the walls around him.

Clang, clang, clang, clang..

Numerous arrows hit the surface of the great sword as Jeemin's pupils shrunk. Then a huge axe hanging upside down from the ceilings swung down towards him.

Jeemin flew back like bag of sack from the force as he gritted his teeth.

He immediately stood up after falling and warily eyed the narrow tunnel, while his back was screaming in pain.

After discovering that there were no more arrows heading towards him, he heaved a sigh of relief as his hand shivered from fear.

Jin Hyoon trembled and immediately backed away from the tunnel as soon as Jeemin was sent flying back. 

The ominous gleam of the axe fixed on the ceiling slowly swung back and forth inside the tunnel, awaiting for its next victim. It gradually fixed itself on the ceiling as it was 'swallowed' back inside it.

A strange and scalp tingling realization suddenly beset the party.

Jin Hyoon muttered with a terrified voice while her eyes wandered around quickly, "Traps..."

But Jeemin, who almost got killed by the trap - if not for the greatsword blocking the axe - was smiling.

His lips twitched in joy as the idea that popped up in his head awhile ago in front of the mansion's gate resurfaced.

"Hope it works..." He turned around and walked towards Claire, put down the greatsword, and stretch his palm open in front of her.

"... Remember the white lengthwise paper you showed me? The one with strange writings on it, and its back has a thin film of plastic covering it?" Jeemin said as his heart thumped in excitement.

Claire creased her eyebrows and thought for awhile. After several seconds has passed, in the midst of the gloomy and dusty mansion, she brought out a pouch from her pocket.

She rummaged for it for awhile and took out a lenghthwise yellow paper with unreadable inscriptions and adorned with random geometrical shapes.

There were writings on it that seemed to be written in the Korean language, but it was hardly readable because it also looks like written in Japanese. When Jeemin narrowed his eyes, the overlapping letters dizzied him as it became Chinese characters, then became the English letters of alphabets that was beyond recognition; and then Korean characters again.

Jeemin woke up from his daze because of the throbbing pain coming from his temples. Since he can't figure out what to call those writings, he just named it runes.

[Information Bank]

-Trap Nullifier Talisman Disassemble traps nearby.

A memory in his mind was jolted awake as soon as she was about to put the talisman on his palm.

Claire put the talisman on his palm as he stared dazedly at her bright blue eyes. Her soft and warm hand brushed past his palm as she retracted her hand.

She tucked a strand of her blond hair behind her ear with her smooth and white finger as she frowned when she noticed his gaze.

"What's wrong?" She asked with her mature voice.

"... Shoot." Jeemin muttered in fluster as the talisman almost fell from his hand.

We had a medium-grade consumable Origin capable of acting like a grenade! Why didn't I thought of using that when we were attacked by those creatures in the desert?!

His lips twitched violently as he walked to the right door.

He let out a deep sigh and closely examined the talismans on his palm.

Afterwards, he lifted up his black face mask and peeled off the thin plastic film on the back of the talisman with his teeth. He then covered his face again with the mask.

The back of the talisman was now like the surface of a tape. He hesitated for a moment before slapping the talisman beside the door.

It stuck firmly on the wall as he went inside the tunnel with the greatsword as his shield again.

After reaching the middle of the narrow and damp tunnel - with his hand clenching the hilt of the upside-down greatsword in front of him - he stood for awhile before nodding in satisfaction when nothing happened.

He continued walking forward until he met the end of the tunnel.

He used the greatsword to prod the wall at the end of tunnel as a muffled metallic clang rang out around him. After prodding the wall several times, he tilted his head as he examined the wall.

When nothing surprising happened, he turned around and went to the left door.

A scraping sound of a heavy object being dragged on the wooden creaking floor resounded in the entire mansion.

Jeemin twitched his ears from the noise he was causing as the rest of party watched him walked towards the left door.

He kicked the door open, brought the greatsword in front of him and quickly went inside. The same thing happened when he entered the left door, the traps were not triggered, and the end of the tunnel was also blocked by a wall.

"It's safe, but be careful." He said as he started towards the staircase backdrop.

Thud, thud, thud, thud...

He dragged the greatsword behind him as he climbed the staircase backdrop.

"Swept the other doors around, I'll take the left," he coldly ordered.

There were three doors on the left side full of cobwebs.

Jeemin was surprised to find that the traps in the three tunnels were also affected by the talisman.

He clicked his tongue as he took a glance at Claire's direction. She was opening the third door from the right side of the second floor with caution while Hyoon and Dmitri did the same.

The atmosphere between the party could only be described as tense, perhaps it was because of the gloomy mansion, but Jeemin was sure that their awkward treatment of each other was caused by the problem earlier. 

Their eyes were avoiding each other and they spoke as succinctly as possible. Even their expression was blank in contrast to how they were just talking to each other before Seiji 'died'.

Jeemin sighed as soon as they finished opening all the doors.

The weight of the greatsword numbed his hand as he walked towards the wide middle floor of the staircase backdrop with the old dusty gray carpet.

As soon as he stood at wide middle floor, his eyes widened from shock as the whole staircase suddenly caved in.

He freed his hand and covered the back of his head as he fell down.

Dusts flew everywhere as the cracking sound of wood filled the insides of the mansion.

Claire and Hyoon looked at each other and immediately darted towards the staircase leading down.

Claire waved her hand in front of her as the dusts covered her vision while Hyoon did the same.

When the dusts flying around gradually got thinner, they saw Jeemin dusting his tattered jacket as he coldly said, "I'm fine."

Claire was about to heave a sigh of relief when she Hyoon frowning.

"What?" She asked in a whisper

Hyoon glance at her and replied with a whisper too, "Don't you think he's better off doing everything alone? Why does it feel like he's treating us as nothing but baggage...."

"... And I can feel something is off about him, I just can't put my finger on it."

"Perhaps you're just imagining things."

Hyoon scoffed and whispered, "Aren't you creeped out by how he stared at you awhile ago?"

"..."

Meanwhile, Jeemin was staring at a white door inlaid with eight golden runes.

The runes were glowing brightly, and white light seeped out from the edges of the white door.

He walked towards the door and hesistantly touched it.

A bright golden light engulfed the whole mansion briefly as it retracted again in a blink of an eye.

The doors that they left open slammed shut one by one as Jeemin saw a faint outline of golden rune appeared on his palm.

He narrowed his eyes and examined the golden rune on his palm, but the rune disappeared as soon as all the doors slammed shut.

Several sounds of series of gears turning came from the walls. As the sound grinded to halt, the white door opened by itself.

A white narrow tunnel with the ceilings, walls, and floor made from white marbles greeted him.

The tunnel didn't feel dangerous. It was neither damp nor filled with dusts, everything is clean and immaculate.

Jeemin dazedly picked up the greatsword beside him and walked inside the tunnel with awe. It felt warmth and smelled fresh.

But as soon as he entered the tunnel halfway, his head throbbed in pain again. He dropped the slab of metal in his hand and curled on the ground.

He pressed his head fiercely as he banged his head on the floor and the walls of the tunnel.

Blood dripped down from his forehead as it stained the immaculate white wall and the floor red.

[Resonance: 1%]

A system notice appeared and disappeared in a blink of an eye. Jeemin missed the system notice as strange memories imprinted itself on his brain. His conciousness suddenly faded out.

When he recovered from the pain, a cold glint appeared on his deep black eyes.

After turning his head on the entrance, his chilly gaze made the rest of party felt their scalp tingled.

His voice cold and devoid of emotion as he said, "The gate is safe, just push it open and rest up at the next stage."

He pointed towards the the golden gate at the end of the tunnel and walked out of the entrance without saying a word. He didn't forget to return the greatsword as he disappeared from their view.

"See," Hyoon mouthed as she turned her head towards Claire.

Claire shrugged lightly as she scanned the blood dripping from the walls and floor.

She frowned and recalled Jeemin's figure when he brushed past them.

Since he wasn't saying anything, it must be nothing serious.

Dmitri and Li Jing pushed the golden gate open and saw a rusty stairs leading up.

Dmitri coldly glanced at them and said, "What are you waiting for?"

After leaving those words, he went up as Li Jing and Hyoon followed suit.

As soon as Claire was about to reach the top of the rusty stairs - with the fresh breeze making her blond hair flutter and the light of the sun reflected from her eyes - her footsteps suddenly came to halt.

Rest up?

"'Up'?" She muttered as her eyes narrowed looking at the end of the stairs.

How did he know?