The orcs noticed our presence the moment we came into the room and turned to size us up. These were orcs of the dumb breed. They could only communicate simple things among each other and their minds were pitifully empty.
They were strong, perfect in fact for a test of the body. No negotiations, no small talk, only violence. To say something positive, they were good for practice.
I mentally told the two shadow servants hidden in Isetta's shadow to keep her safe and jumped into the horde. Most orcs instantly directed their full attention at me and howled while swinging their clubs, swords, axes, and other weapons.
I kept dodging their attacks at the latest moment possible and began to weave through them while striking out with my open palm from time to time. Each strike was precise and sent a pulse through the orc's body killing it instantly and without any visible damage.
Since they were this bunched up I had made it my goal to only deal damage to the one I hit while leaving the others for later. My training wasn't supposed to be easy after all or I could just save myself the effort. Most of the orcs fell by my hand and the rest was cut down by my scythe-wielding shadow servants.
Rooms like these kept popping up and the number of orcs kept rising. Apart from that, the maze was fairly harmless if you managed to get through the entry passage without help.
Next, we entered a room that was parted by a moat. The moat was filled with lava and strong flames were flaring up in random spots from time to time. How was that even a fair test? Short of specialized mages, no one could pass this at the mage level!
"How are we going to get past that?"
"By cheating."
I placed my hand on her shoulder and teleported to the other side of that flaming mess.
"You can teleport?"
"Isetta, how did we get here?"
"We teleported... WAIT, we teleported!"
"How did you not notice that until now? You know what, forget I asked. Let's continue and get this over with."
After the fire pit, the layout of the maze changed. It was now more clearly structured. There were individual rooms on the sides of the main hallway. Each door was built to require a certain amount of strength to push it open inwards and double that strength to push it open outwards.
Behind some doors were a trial and a reward, others just led to an empty room. Probably a measure to ensure that someone didn't just rob this place clean in one go.
The first room we entered that contained a trial was filled with goblins led by a goblin king. I wasn't in the mood to train using goblins so I cast inferno after entering the room. Isetta nearly threw up from the smell of burnt goblin flesh while I splat the surviving goblin king onto the wall by punching it.
The reward was a unique grade bow that gave arrows shot with it a slight homing effect. The craftsmanship was alright but the homing enchantment was incredibly inefficient and weak.
For now, I stashed it and proceeded to the next room. What awaited us this time was an orc general. However, since there were no orcs around its true might couldn't be displayed.
The heavy axe it wielded made its movements and attacks incredibly cumbersome and the armor that usually allowed it to have openings while attacking couldn't hold up against me. I evaded one of the strikes and let my palm impact his chest armor. The force from my blow traveled through the metal and crushed the orc general's heart.
The reward this time was a sword that could burst into flames. Sadly, it was once again just a unique grade weapon with terrible efficiency. Isetta meanwhile was just looking at me with wide-open eyes. She didn't know much about danger rankings so she had been too shocked before.
All the opponents I had faced so far were judged at rank C. It wasn't common knowledge that a group of more than ten orcs had a danger rating of B, so did the goblin king accompanied by goblins.
An orc general accompanied by orcs would. be classified as B+ while alone it would be B-. In Isetta's eyes, this was the first time I had defeated an opponent of rank B and alone at that. Usually, a team of six to ten adventurers of the same rank would be needed to subdue a threat of the same level. Though to be fair those calculations weren't always accurate.
On to the next room! We entered a lot of empty rooms and finally at the end of the corridor the last room wasn't empty.
A humanoid construct of metal sat cross-legged in the middle of the room with a halberd placed on its knees. The moment we entered, a purple light flashed its eyes, and it rose to its feet.
A tentative mental bridge was formed between us. Since the mind on the other side of the bridge held no bad intent I let it happen. After the bridge was established a gentle prod came from the other side and then a female voice spoke directly into my mind.
'Greetings challenger, I'm beautiful thought 2631. I will be your opponent this time. May the greater mind be victorious.'
'Well, I'm Abel. Also, I know this is just a formality you say every time you fight but this is a test of the body. Saying the stronger mind will win kind of ruins that.'
'I see.'
The metal construct, probably a mind holding golem, grabbed her halberd, and charged at me. Her speed and strength were those of a mage that had reached the pinnacle of their realm and gotten a body that could fully utilize this power.
To clarify, she hadn't reached that level during her life. She had been a high mage and after death, her mind and soul had been placed into this golem. Due to its physical limitations, she could now only use magic at the peak of the mage realm.
However, letting her use magic of that caliber in a closed-off room would put Isetta in danger so I cast nyl zone.
'You have completely blocked my ability to use magic outside of my body? This shouldn't be possible! How did you do it?'
'Not gonna tell you.'
Her attack patterns immediately became more aggressive. The halberd's blade left behind phantom images due to the speed at which it was swung.
While dodging her swings, I was busy analyzing the way her body was built. Mind holding golems were rare in the first place and I had never seen this model. The idea behind its workings struck me as quite novel so I carefully committed the entire blueprint to mind. Yellow might be interested in this too.
'Why aren't you fighting back? Does holding whatever spell blocks mine take too much of a toll on you?'
'You are overthinking this. I was merely preoccupied with something else.'
On her next swing, I caught the halberd's blade with my bare hand, and while she was busy trying to free it, I used the bridge connecting our minds to invade hers.
'What are you doing in here?!!'
'This may be considered cheating but I don't want to ruin the golem. Do you want to be set free or destroyed?'
I completely toppled the defenses of her mind and prepared to cut her connection with the golem. After that, I could either set her soul free or destroy it.
'What has happened to my people?'
'They have disappeared into the ups and downs of history. No one seems to remember them and this tower is seen as an ancient ruin.'
'If our glory has truly faded to this point. Destroy me, wipe me away. I can't bear to be reborn with these memories.'
'I could just wipe away your memories. There is no coming back if you proceed.'
'I'm well aware. Do it.'
It was her will and who was I to force her to continue her journey of existence if she wasn't willing. Like blowing out a candle I snuffed out her soul, making her mind collapse. All that remained of her now were the memories people had of her.
Near instantaneously, a teleportation formation lit up at the floor of the room and Isetta and I were teleported back to the monolith along with the empty golem and the halberd. The second passage had been cleared.