Lerna extended her head and looked at the holographic screen.
She saw that a light curtain was blocking her way in front.
The light curtain seemed thin and weak from the appearance but she understood that it wasn't as weak as it looked or Rex wouldn't look so bothered.
After walking for another hour they reached the place. They could run instead of walking but Rex didn't want to act carelessly, although no traps were activated when combat bots walked this path, underestimating a tomb could lead to death in the next moment. Zakiya had told him that she spent more than a year when she explored and cleared an Ancient Tomb, although this tomb didn't look ancient but if someone like Zakiya doesn't like to act carelessly inside a tomb then what right does he have to underestimate it?
In front of them was the light curtain, an oval white glass screen was embedded on the wall at the right.
Rex extended his hand lightly touched and the white screen, fragments of information flooded in his head, he closed his eyes and digested the information then sighed deeply.
"Now what?" Lerna said.
"This is a three-person trial, we cannot attend it until one more person arrives," Rex said.
"Then we wait?" Lerna asked in a displeased tone, she didn't like the feeling of staying in such a closed area, she was a beast that loved to measure the heights of skies so such an environment was not up to her taste.
"How about this, we wait for one day and if no one arrives then we will head back and find a different way... Huh?" Rex made his decision but then a new window appeared above his smart band showing someone attacking his scouting bots.
It was a familiar woman so Rex instantly recognized her.
"Isn't it Nera? She seemed to have been teleported near us? Good," Rex started manually control the bots to retreat and leave behind clues for her to follow the same path he traveled. Rex also saw that the Karmic Indicator above her head was still white. He could send a voice message but no person in the right mind would like to come to two unknown Calamity Lords inside a tomb.
Nera was coming from the path which had the traces of blood, as a Calamity Lord herself, it wasn't strange for her to get teleported near them.
She was cautious towards the flying bots, although they never attacked her but she felt like someone was looking at her so she decided to destroy them. When they retreated, she cautiously followed their tracks.
When she reached the end of her way, she had three choices, but the passage in front was bigger while the other two were in the same line as the one she came out from. In the end, she followed the same path as those flying bots.
Unlike Rex and Lerna, she was flying to not trigger traps on the ground, lucky for her, Rex purposely made the flying bots trigger the trap in the air to let her act carefully and quickly reach them.
Soon after a little more than one hour she saw the silhouette of Rex and Lerna in the distance, she was startled, Nera thought of retreating for a second but then she noticed both of them looking at her and those strange round things floating around Rex.
Her eyes flickered and she got a basic idea of the situation, she was doubtful earlier as to why these round things made by the inheritance ground were foolish enough to trigger their own traps but now she saw them obediently hovering around Rex, she guessed this was his doing.
Now that she was seen, it would be rude to ignore them and retreat.
Nera quietly approached them, then bowed.
"This junior destroyed senior's... Flying Balls, junior asks for forgiveness," Nera bowed and said in an apologetic tone.
Rex smiled and was about to wave his hand saying 'he didn't care' but then he felt that her words felt somewhat... Wrong.
"Fly... Flying Balls?" He muttered to himself.
[Rex you have too many flying balls, although some of them got destroyed but don't worry we can make more....]
'Shuttt Uppp! You bastard,' Rex screamed inwardly.
He then looked at the innocent eyes of Nera who looked really sorry for her actions and felt bitter.
Lerna also looked confused.
'Next time I make Scouting Bots, I'm gonna 100% change their shape,' Rex made his first oath that day.
"Don't mind it Fairy Nera, and they are not Flying... Balls, they are Scouting Bots, okay? Scouting Bots!" Rex said with a serious expression.
Nera nodded her head indicating that she understood.
"It's good that you understand, listen there is a reason for why we guided you here, the challenge here is..." Rex then explained about the three-person challenge, he then asked her to proceed together.
Nera had neither the reason nor the choice to reject, she had destroyed Rex's scouting bots and he helped her in safely coming here so if she declines his request then it would be seen as an offense. She agreed but inwardly raised her guard towards both Rex and Lerna, ready to retreat if they sneak attack her.
"Take this potion, it will help you in recovering your Qi, then we will proceed," Rex said as he took out a Qi Replenishing Potion and offered it to her.
Nera shook her head.
"I thank senior for his kindness, but junior can't impose on you, I have prepared Qi Replenishing Pills in advance," She said then took out some pills and swallowed them.
Rex just smiled and didn't pursue more, he understood that she was acting cautiously in case he used something to harm her and it was natural, he would be more suspicious if she didn't behave this way.
After a few seconds, her Qi reserves were full.
Rex placed his hand on the light curtain and told them to do the same, Lerna did it without hesitation, Nera purposely delayed while looking at the light curtain in a daze then after seeing that nothing happened to both of them, she did the same.
When all three of them put their hands on it, they suddenly felt an unresistible suction force coming from the curtain, they got sucked in an instant before they could even try to resist.
All three of them were thrown in a long cuboidal room on the other side of the curtain.
Rex observed his surroundings.
It was a long cuboidal room, on the backside was the door with a light curtain covering it, it was the door that let them in, on the other side of the room were three closed stone doors.
A big monster face was carved on top of the three stone doors, the face looked similar to that of orcs, it had two sharp long teeth sticking out from its lower jaw, but unlike orcs it had only one big eye, the eye was closed.
But suddenly the jaw of the beast trembled and in the next second, the stone beast opened its eye.
The pupil of the eye was too made of stone, the beast scanned through the faces of the three of them.
Nera felt like the beast could see everything, she felt like she was lying naked in front of him, she instinctively moved and was about to attack but Rex stopped her immediately.
The stone-carved beast opened his big mouth then spoke.
"Welcome challengers, who is the leader?" The beast said in a cold emotionless tone.
"I'm the Leader," Rex said.
"Do you two agree? Your life depends on it," The beast switched glances between Lerna and Nera then spoke.
Lerna nodded casually like she didn't care.
As for Nera, she thought for a few seconds, and just when Rex was about to speak, she agreed. She was a wise woman, she didn't know Rex's character but she could tell what would likely happen if it was any other Calamity Lord. The door at the back was covered in the light curtain, she was sure that one person alone cannot access it which means she couldn't escape, she never had a choice, it was more like if she wants to do it the easy way or the hard way.
At the same time, she was surprised, she never heard of an inheritance behaving like that.
"I will now tell you details of the trial, there are three ways to pass this trial which are connected to these three doors. The choice depends solely on the leader, if you choose the first door, then you can clear the trial without doing anything and advance further but only two people can pass the door and the last one has to stay here for four days before they are thrown outside.
If you choose the second door, then all three of you have to stay here for two days before you can advance further.
If you choose the third door, a test will be held, the test material will be provided to you by the tomb, you will have one week to complete the test, if even one of you passes then all three of you will be able to directly leave the inner zone and can enter the core zone of the tomb but on failure, the leader will be downgraded by two cultivation realms, all three of you will be thrown out and will get banned from the tomb for one year. The leader of the team has one hour to make a decision," The stone beast said.
Rex closed his eyes and started thinking.
'The first door looks good choice but if I choose this then my Karmic Indicator will likely turn black because of the action of abandoning the teammate, that's just a minor problem, if there is a trial ahead that forbids any challenger with black Karmic Indicator then I would be done for and can't enter again for a whole decade,' Rex thought.
There were many righteous path inheritance tombs where the tomb baited their challengers with short gains to kick them out in the long run.
A person's Karmic Indicator takes one decade to reset, so if it was a trap like that then Rex won't be able to advance later on.
He directly opted out of the first option and pondered about the second and third. The second option looked good but the problem was, no one knew what can happen in two days, what if someone else got the inheritance?
The tomb was from the higher realm but there was no lack of geniuses in the world, moreover what if people from the higher realm also came for the tomb? Who had seen tomorrow?
At this time, Nera approached him and bowed.
"Senior, you can take the first option without any worry, junior will stay here for four days and will try again later on, it's to make up for my previous mistake," Nera said.
Unlike Rex, Nera didn't know much about the tomb, she had heard the stone beast face's words but didn't show her curiosity. Her focus was on the choices and no matter how she racked her brain, the best option was the first one, Rex and Lerna were a couple in her eyes, so she was obviously the one who is going to be left behind.
Rex was the leader, he could make a choice regardless of her wishes, according to her he was just putting up a front to show that he was sincerely thinking about a plan that won't abandon her.
"There is no need, I choose the third door," Rex said in a firm tone.
"???" Nera was dumbstruck.
'I have already decided to retreat if I failed in one try, rather then wasting time and advance slowly it's better to take the test, even if I pass the door I can't escape a test in other trials, it's better to get familiar with the type of tomb it is, and if I succeed then I can directly enter the core zone,' Rex thought.
Rex wasn't worried about the cultivation downgrade penalty, and as for being banned, he had a cheat named Zakiya. He believed she would definitely have a way or trick to remove it. If not, then she could clear it instead of him, he would still gain a few things as her student.
"Choice confirmed," The stone beast said.
..Crrrrr...
The third door got divided into two segments and retracted into the wall, another light curtain was showing on the other side.
Rex walked to the door then passed through the light curtain like it was just some illusion.
Lerna followed behind him.
Nera stood frozen in her place, didn't understanding what was Rex doing. She wasn't able to digest the word of her getting banned for a while year.
After receiving a warning from the stone beast she hurried and followed Rex into the next room.
When she entered the new room, she realized it was twice as big as the previous one and it wasn't empty.
Both the sides of the room were actually bookshelves that were filled with old-looking books to the brim. There was a closed-door on the other side of the room with the similar-looking stone beast carved on top of it.
A big stone table with a blue ice cuboid on top of it was present at the center of the room. On a careful look, she realized that a humanoid creature... A woman was frozen inside the blue ice.