Chapter 8

As soon as he arrived on the 40th floor, he decided to clear the floor’s challenge before exploring the ruins around the said floor. He is pretty sure he will be able to decipher most of the ruins’ rune and scripture with the ‘Polyglot’ ability he had.

‘If I’m lucky enough I might be able to learn how to use a rune magic,’ He was sure that most of the cult followers that will rise in the future was able to come in power because they managed to interpret the ruins in this floor 

『 Would you like to challenge this floor? 』 

『 YES/NO 』

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『 Defeat the goblin shaman 』 

“Wasn’t the challenge supposed to be defeating the goblin king before?” Izz asked the system after seeing that the content of the challenge was different from what he remembered. He remembered that it took him two weeks to even infiltrate the goblin castle to kill the goblin king, which was heavily protected behind the castle walls. The goblin king is no different from an ordinary goblin except that they have intelligence and are able to give orders to their subordinates. 

However, the goblin shaman is not in the same category as other goblins or goblin kings. They are able to wield magic like it’s part of their anatomy, the temple is harder to breach than the castle walls. Which is why most people only infiltrate the castle and kill the goblin king even with the temple in their sight and the possibility of earning more rewards, it’s not worth the trouble. The temple itself is like a fortress with multiple traps, curse and magic barriers in place hidden from intruder’s sight. 

『 Would you like to proceed with the challenge? 』 

What else can he do except face the challenge head on, “Yes.”

『 Transferring player to Goblin Kingdom 』 

『 MAY THE SYSTEM BE WITH YOU 』 

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He found himself in a green field just outside of the goblin kingdom, he could see the fort walls from the hill he was transported to. He could see around five to six goblin guards manning the walls with spears in hand. It seems rather difficult to scale the walls in broad daylight, and he didn’t have a suitable ability that would help him do so. 

“Open system shop”

He started browsing for skills or items that will allow him to scale the walls, preferably a flight skill, although it would probably cost a lot of points. He should probably check his status now to see how many points he has accumulated.

“Status”

『 STATUS 』 

Player: Izz Putera/ Kim Hyun Ki

Age:19 (28+)

Titles: Regressor,Apicem Hominis (EX+), Goblin Slayer (C+)

Lv:38

Mana:30

Int:35

Strength:42

Luck:45

Skills:Polyglot(Passive)(SS), Mana Sense (S)(Passive),The gambler (R) (Active)

Stats:0

Points:160,000

He didn’t realize he had accumulated lots of points, it was an amount that he wouldn’t have ever dreamed of in the past that he would ever hold. His stats and level have risen quite a bit. It seems like buying a skill from the shop wouldn’t be much of a problem after all. 

Amongst all the flight skills listed in the shop there was two that catch his eyes—

『Jentayu ¹Jentayu; a Malaysian legendary bird that signifies water, with magnificent blue and white feathers, a colorful peacock tail, and a crown-like crest on its head. Wings (Active)(S) 』 

『 An ability that allows the user to have a pair of wings, enabling them to fly, the wings also enables the user to create a water shield. 』 

『 Cost:45,000 』 

『 Eros Wings (Active)(SS) 』 

『 An ability that allows the user to have a pair of wings, enabling them to silently and swiftly fly, shield, and attack their target using the wings' golden feathers. 』 

『 Cost:150,000 』 

Both of these abilities will let him scale the walls and will be useful in the future since they will allow him to employ 'flying' to reach higher land and gain access to additional views and strategies. However, both skills have different advantages, and the price is glaringly different. His rationale was opting for ‘Jentayu Wings’ as it was more affordable and having a water shield to add on is not bad of an offer.

‘Eros Wings’ is obviously the better option as it covers both offence and defence, but if he buy it then he will only be left with 10,000 points and he doesn’t know when he will need more points in case of an emergency. Although he can sell the golds he had in his backpack but it might not sell for much. After contemplating for a long time, he decided to buy ‘Eros Wings’ after using ‘The Gambler’ skill to make sure he did the right thing. 

From the description in the store he was expecting the wings feather to be a normal bird-like wings feather in gold. To his surprise it was a wing made out of gold but it was too sturdy, lightweight and hard to say it is made of pure gold. He was expecting it to feel weird and awkward at first to control the wings however it felt natural as if it had been part of him and it was just an additional limb.

‘It lived up to it’s rank and  worth the point’

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With the sword firmly in his grip, he wrapped around the goblin to stop it from moving, putting my hand over his mouth, muffling the scream of the creature as he stabbed into its throat. Nobody seemed to notice the muffled noise of the creature as it slowly fell limp, or that someone is infiltrating their tightly guarded kingdom and heading to the centre of it; the temple. It was beneficial for him if the infiltration continued smoothly and silently as he planned since he doesn’t want to spend more energy than needed to be. Also, he is not sure how the time works in this challenge compared to the outside.

He managed to sneak into the temple, the corridor he managed to find himself in is clouded with an unknown fog, it was odourless but the fog makes him a bit dizzy. He needed to move to other space to get away from the fog, he soon encountered some goblins donning the temple garbs along the way which soon laid lifelessly on the ground dyeing it red. He is sure that the smell of the blood will soon attract more of them his way.

The deeper he went into the temple he started to notice more and more graphic and detailed scripture etched on the wall. Most of the image depicting what seemed to be the goblins bowing and praying toward the sky, the sun or an unknown faceless figure until he came across a large stone door, unlike the all the walls he had pass by so far this one wasn’t etched with drawings but instead with goblin’s language that looks like gibberish if it wasn’t for ‘Polyglot’.

『 praise him, pray to him, he shall guide you who had lost to the way of truth and your eyes shall be uncovered, we will all be free, at last. You who had lost shall find the way and say his name ‘ █T██N’ 』 

At a moment like this he is grateful for having ‘Apicem Hominis’ title,he is sure whatever being they are worshipping has something to do with the secret of runes magic lying around in the ruins of the 40th floor. He opened the door and stepped inside, it was eerily quiet. The sounds of his footsteps echoed through the empty space then he felt the ground he was stepping on shook a little—

Swish Swish Swish Swish 

Multiple arrows head towards and some managed to hurt him as he was caught off guard, he instantly summoned ‘Eros Wings’ and used it to create a shield around his body from all the arrows. He gritted his teeth from the pain of the injuries he sustained, he knows that soon the goblins will be alerted and he would be cornered. He had to sacrifice his body a bit to counterattack whatever machinery that was releasing all these arrows.

Paaak Crash! Paaak Crash!

With the flaps of his wing, multiple golden feathers spread around the room destroying the machinery. Although, he had to suffer being shot with more arrows for that action.

“Kieek. Kyaaak!” (kill the intruder!), an armies of goblins soon surround him.

Strangely it wasn’t the usual gibberish noise he heard from all other goblins he had encountered so far even with ‘Polyglot’ abilities, it seems like whoever is giving the orders is obviously a goblin with higher standing and intelligence than others. The goblins began to attack him endlessly in futility, with their level and ability even in a large number they are not much of an opponent.

To add cherry on top, ‘Goblin Slayer’ title is still in effect, the wariness and scared expression of the goblins become more obvious. Soon, they started breaking from within and became disordered which led to more and more of them laid dead on the ground. He was sure sooner or later the shaman would shows up as a last resort, if not all the temple’s follower will die by his hand.

“Bring me the shaman head!” He ordered exuding bloodlust.

“Kieek. Kyaaak!” The screams of multiples goblins rise in unison in retaliation, their attack become fiercer and desperate than before. 

As if it had enough of its fellow worshipper scream of agony and anger, the shaman finally showed up. The goblin parted and created a pathway for the shaman to walk, “Cease all the unwanted massacre, I’m here.”

Izz kept silent at the shaman statement and a bit surprised to know that the shaman can speak human language, the rest of the goblins dispersed out of the room leaving only the two figures alone in the room save for all the dead bodies piling on the floor around him. The shaman exterior looks calm and composed but his eyes betrayed him, it was filled with anguish as they scanned the room filled with the lifeless bodies of its kin.

“Do you have any last words, human?”

“Bold words for creature who will lay dead on the same ground of your brothers”

sakinah_z

I'm finally learning to get the hang of the feature in this website! On another note, I'm trying to finish this story by next week as it's a short lightnovel for my final year project! Do comment your thoughts down below.

“Kyaaaak!” the facade that it had been keeping up before completely broken by the provocative words Izz uttered, eyes red with anger and feets slowly levitating off the floor. 

"O'light, lead us your servants; give me your strength to pursue vengeance for your servants' bloodshed! I shall once again purify this land by the grace you have given me.”

A bright light flashed and blinded his vision, before an unknown pain that made him fall to his knees struck him. He gritted his teeth to stand the pain that overwhelmed his senses, and he grabbed a stalk of  skyweed ²Sky weed; is a rare psychoactive drug that makes the user's mind hazy, raises dopamine levels, and causes you to hallucinate if consumed in large amounts. often used in alchemy to create anaesthetics. from the backpack and immediately chewed it. 

It took a while before the effect showed on his body, but the unbearable pain that struck his body before it started became more bearable, and his mind was clearer and calmer than before. He stood back on his feet. He summoned the familiar golden wings and let them fly towards the levitating shaman with his sword firmly in his grip. 

With the help of his wing, he flew towards the shaman, sending a slash towards its abdomen, but living up to its prestige, a shield immediately stood in the way of his attack, Izz persistently pushed forward his sword, pressuring the shaman to be pushed back by its own shield. 

He keep send slash after slash towards its direction without giving the creature a break, stepping up his attack more, he send the golden feather in the shaman’s way as he flew around its body as he tried to catch the shaman off guard as the powerful wings enable him to fly towards multiple places with just a flaps of his wings.

Finally, he was able to stab the stomach of the shaman, he pushed the stab harder and deeper into the creature creating a hole as he twisted the sword to 180 degree twisting its guts. The shaman is already weakened from summoning the unknown power from the being that they worshipped and conjuring multiple shield spells. He took out his sword out of the creature body with a kick to its body—

Shiiiiiiirk, Splat, Thud.

He looked down towards towards the goblin shaman that falls to the ground, laid limply heavily injured and breathing its last breath not before saying its final words—

“This is not the last of us, the light has bore upon you, it will always remember the figure that try to shadowed our mission.”

“You guys are actually a cult of light, right” he replied, he already picked up a few hints along the way, from the scripture to the summoning spells of the unknown light, it was all a common characteristic of the cult that deny the system that started to rise later down the years in the tower. It seems like it's already been formed and spreading faster than in his first life.

“Haha…ha…a cult…we’re more than a cult…ignorant hu..man…” the shaman finally released his last breath with much difficulty.

『 Congratulations! 』

『 Congratulations for passing the 40th floor』

『 Would you like to go to the next floor or skip up to 20 floors?』

『 YES/NO 』

Although he has been looking forward to look around the ruin on the 40th floor, something in his guts told him that the scripture in this temple may be related to scripture and secret of rune magic etched on the ruins around 40th floor. 

He started to look every nook and cranny for scriptures and records that contained information of the cult of light. In one of the walls it was depicting a scene of the creation of the galaxy, from the galaxy two celestial beings; life and darkness were created by the creator, then various creatures were created from elf, dwarves to human beings. 

The scripture on the walls leads him to a huge golden door depicting the birth of a human boy, the human boy grows up seeing the filthiest and darkest side of human beings. Izz opened the huge door to discover more of the boy’s story and why he is depicted in the scripture amongst all these powerful figures.  Inside of the room; from the walls to the roof, the murals depict the boy’s life in more detail.

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During the beginning of time, where the humanity started to develop there was a boy, with the fairest of skin with a pair of enchanting and purest of heart; he was a diamond in the rough, the light in the slum that he were born and abandoned in but he had faith in his heart and that was what attracted Chaos’s attention. 

One day he got a revelation from the creator itself, thus he went on a journey to go through the test that was given to him. He was the first and perhaps the only human that ascended to become a celestial being joining the other two. The story depicted in the murals helps him guess that the god that the cult of light is worshipping is the boy in the story. But that doesn’t explain everything, he was left with more questions.

‘Does it mean the boy becomes a celestial being of light, the cult of light?’

 ‘Is he the mastermind’

‘Is the undeciphered name, ‘ █T██N’ is his real name?’

Now, he is convinced that whatever power that created the power or lies beyond the 100th floor is the four upper beings depicted in the scripture. If he managed to find the secret hideout of the cult of light, he would be closer to the truth. He already got as much information as he could in this temple, it was time to uncover what lies back on the 40th floor.

“System, exiting the challenge”

『 Returning the player back to 40th floor 』 

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There are hidden ruins lying in the 40th floor that were ignored by the players as they only came to take the challenge and excitedly hurried off to go to the 50th floor which was famously known as the magic trove. It wasn't until in his third year in the tower that it was spread that a young girl found herself lost while exploring the ruins out of curiosity and stumbled upon records of secret rune magic and methods. What differs rune magic from other magic is the fact that it didn’t use as much mana as ordinary magic and the time spent to cast one is less. Although the effect of the rune magic may differ based on the wielder capabilities and understanding of rune language which were already extinct.

The secrets of rune magic were written on a stone tablet, which did not contain any spells but did contain the rune language. For Izz, who possessed the 'Polyglot' skill, it was a treasure he sought because he doesn't need to know a spell if he learns the rune language and how to wield it.

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