JOSHUA POV...
Ugh.. i can't stand the chief at all, what the hell does he mean by the plants are under watered? I pulled out like 4 fucking liters already. Whatever, today is gardening day my absolute least liked day. I sound like a jerk but i REALLY hate gardening, like what am i gonna do? Cut plants and make art? Maybe water a few fucking liters and get yelled by a hag? God what did i do to be punished like this. Well whatever, just gotta wait this day out. Hm? Mr Shrou is calling, what does the head captain of the scouting team wants from me? Oh shit a promotion perhaps, maybe a raise? Or maybe scout 5 times a week and no gardening? This just took an amazing turn.
I walk hastily toward the captain with wishful thoughts dancing in my head, much to my disappointment he said something completely different.
"Joshua, Kan and Juvile have spotted a stranger continuously wander around the forest, that strange lad hasn't done any killing or destroying yet, but rather just wander around aimlessly, we also have determined that he's alone, you told us you found the same lad some days ago yeah? Go deal with him"
Oh lord it's that dude.
"Sir yes sir."
Rushing towards the location given by the captain, i quickly detected him still walking around, i guess some people really have a death wish, i guess driving him out of here for now is the best solution, when is he gonna give up anyways, that dungeon is near to impossible to find if the gods don't give direction, at this rate he is just heading straight to his own mausoleum.
"Hey Relicta! Stop where you stand immediately!"
He flinched a bit at the surprised yelling but turn around and look at me,
"There you are forest guy or whatever your name is, mind showing me the dungeon?"
Gosh he's annoying,
"I told you once and i will tell you again, i won't tell you where it is, truthfully even i don't know where that place is and i have no desire to have the knowledge of its location, you really have an iron will i have to admit. Walking around for days eh?"
He giggle a bit and answer,
"Oh you actually don't know? Well that's unfortunate, well then i promise i won't break or kill anything, just gonna keep searching that's all"
I truly hate times like this,
"I can't let you walk around this at all, go back NOW. Or i'll make you."
Relicta unfazed,
"Beat me up all you want, i'll come back any days on the week, any month of the year, any year of my life span, or do you have the will to kill me?"
Well now he hit a dark spot, i never had any intentions to seriously hurt him since he haven't done any crimes in the forest.
"Look. Fine.. how about this, i'll walk with you but if after today and we don't find it, you give up, deal?"
He laugh out maniacally again, oh i despise that laugh
"YES YES SURE! DEAL DEAL!"
And now here i am, walking alongside this dude with possible brain issue, we pass a river, some big boulders and along the way he told me all fun facts about magic and soul essence, according to him whenever he "void", he consume not mana but a bit of his soul essence which can be regain like mana but if he overused it his own main soul will get "voided" and he will cease to exist, i find it hard to believe anything he's saying at all, void magic? That can't be, any void beings are already exterminated, those dudes went extinct for far too long now, i have met an unbelievable amount of people who like to bluff about their power to assert dominance, i guess i'll just force laugh and move on.
"Say Relicta, since you know so much, what if a human that is born without magic or any magic essence at all, somehow be able to use magic? Or possibly to learn magic"
He went quiet for a solid 10 minutes, then answers
"That... is possible yes. But the being itself won't be able to use magic, rather be assist by another force. Lets take a magic weapon for example, usually you'd need mana of yourself to use it but in a special case of an already magic embed weapon it will use its own mana to cast magic, therefor technically making the user a magic weapon user, there's also cases of already magic enhanced weapon giving its user magic power for the duration of using the weapon. So in a sense, it works"
What. IT'S POSSIBLE? BUT..
"Wait are you serious?"
Relicta giggles,
"Yeah dude, it's absolutely possible, aren't you the lost third prince? Your father magic came from his weapons dude, that's something everyone knows"
I frozen at his question, what? My... my father only used magic from his weapons? But that's not true, i.. i've seen.. no. I never seen him used magic before, but that's because he never had to. And what does he meant by everyone knows? No one told me anything like this? I need explanation.
"Wait wait wait. Everyone knew? What do you mean"
Relicta look back to me, horrors take over my heart as he expressed a genuine confused face.
"What are you on about? Your father is a famous samurai for finding and even forging mythical magic enhanced weapons yea? You got your father genes bro, no magic, all strength."
But.. but that's impossible, if that's true, i would have known already, what.. but.. in my bloodline, everyone has magic, even before my father meet my mother, my grandparent also were magic users... but.. but.. no one ever told me. Everyone knew? But how could that possibly be?.. mother. Mother... Oh.
Finally coming to the realization that everyone that have lived by me all those years were not actually expecting anything at all from me but rather they stayed silent about this, my mother must have commanded everyone to treat me with kindness.. that dream i had, a life full of thrill, shock and suspense.. that. It was never meant to be, was it truly never meant to be? No. This won't end here.
"Relicta. Let's find that fucking dungeon."
Relicta shocked bu recover fast with excitement
"SERIOUSLY? LET US GO THEN!"
I will not let this end here, nothing will stop me from chasing that dream,
"One more thing Relicta, the dungeon is originally meant for chosen ones but if some beings manage to actually pass 100 floors, something beyond heavenly rewards and tremendous gifted powers awaits.."
It's true, the gods themselves built the trial based off their hardest battles and toughest enemies, a little known fact is that the gods themselves can't pass their own 100 floors trial. But it is not impossible, for some spectacular beings have passed it before and ascended. No one knows what happened but seems like it's up to us to find out now.
Relicta excitedly talk to me,
"Mmmm, i didn't actually expect such a straightforward confirmation. But by the way, why did you ran from home? Couldn't you just learn swordsmanship through your father?"
....
"I'd rather not talk about it Relicta"
"Heh? Okay then."
Despite agreeing to help him, i have no idea where that dungeon is, maybe it doesn't even exist or perhaps i'm just in a bad mood. I guess time to use one of the locating trick Mr Dan taught me,
"Stay back Relicta"
"Eh? okay"
I pull out a dryad potion, this thing is literally the most handy thing ever i swear, i throw it to the ground and hear a loud thud, it vibrates all over where we stand, i don't entirely understand how this potion works and how it knows what i need each time, but what i know is that the vines and leaves around are slowly turning to one direction, that will be our path.
"Let's go."
Hours of walking pass by...
I can't tell how long it's been since we started walking but it impressed me a bit that Relicta isn't sweating all that much, quite the formidable stamina he got, well nowhere near mine that's for sure. It'll sucks too much if i lose to him in term of physical power too.
Huh? Everything stopped pointing, is the potion duration over? I should throw another, Relicta suddenly stop me
"No no. I think.. it's below where we stand."
That's insane, what does he me-
Third person POV
Relicta doesn't wait anymore and immediately point down to the ground and yell "VOID!" and with that, the ground they stand on rapidly disappear into thin air, making them both free fall to the endless darkness below, panicking, Joshua yell
"WHAT THE FUCK!? WHAT ARE YOU DOING?"
"I CAN FEEL IT JOSHUA BOY, IT'S RIGHT SOMEWHERE HERE! I CAN FEEL IT!"
"NO WHAT DO YOU-"
Thud. They both blacked out from hitting the ground.
Time passed by...
Joshua awoken first then Relicta, and true to Relic deduction, they were indeed, in a dungeon, an old one.
"I can't fucking believe it, IT EXISTS!"
Relicta screams full of energy but only Joshua realized the horrors that are coming for them.
"ABOVE YOU RELI-"
From above, white orbs are being blasted rapidly toward them at incredible speed, despite this Relicta stayed calm and simply said
"Void."
The room went quiet again, a second ago they were being viciously attacked by mysterious white orbs, now the room is quiet after Relic voided them out.
"Huff.. huff.. there were a lot more orbs than i anticipated, well no matter, we're in the dungeon now princey."
"Some fucking how yeah we are. I still can't process everything."
The room around them is painted in a depressing gray and white patterns, cracks are everywhere much to Joshua's concern, although Relicta doesn't pay as much attention as he is allured by something else,
"Hey, i found something"
Pointing down on the floor, both of them look at each other, understanding what have to be done, Joshua start to regret his decision more and more by the second he spends with Relicta. Then, in sync, both of them use their respective forces to break the floor below, revealing an abyss of darkness, but it is not empty, from where they stand, voices, eyes glowing and groans can be heard, even some terrific screeches and in a flash, a creature flies up, its atrocious looks terrified Joshua and fascinate Relicta. It looks like an insect with commendable speed but Joshua swiftly grabbed a nearly rock and smash it, killing it instantly.
"Well if its all vanity then we can walk just fine!"
With that said, they both knew this is floor 1 of 100 they must climb up to escape this hell.
Venturing through the dark labyrinth they trapped themselves in, Relicta has learned many things through floor 1-10, one of those being that when void was killed and new entities came into the world, among those entities are actually hybrid between void and purity, proof of this being the very agonizing fact he couldn't void entirely some of the creatures but rather had to be physically killed, and to his knowledge, whatever can't be void is either already a void being or is a purity being, he could only void half or sometimes only 1/3 of the being and it was up to Joshua to use his combat skills to kill it off. Joshua also realized that the beings they killed are actually very valuable not just about the knowledge aspect, but rather, when one of the beings blood accidentally spilled into Joshua mouth and he drink it, he had a short enhance where his body reached new limits, but Relicta quickly told him not to abuse it as someone who is born without magic essence cannot use third party enhancement recklessly or else it will lead to overdoes, this can be trained by drinking a small portion a day and the body will adapt and eventually grow stronger and reach new limits. This right here, was the best news Joshua have heard for the past 15 years of his miserable life.
It also came to Relicta attention that the more they go up, the more undiscovered ores and materials they find, on floor 4 and 7 they had found a new ore on floor 4 which is essentially used to forge magic weapons according to Relicta and on floor 7 Joshua was able to break apart a wood-like material but after careful deciphering Relicta shockingly realized it is harder than the hardest metal used to build structors in Heaven's Grace. With that knowledge, they gather as much as they could, thankfully Relicta had a handy void bag which he store his tools in, it basically keep everything he wants in the void and he can reach in and take it out anytime, surely this isn't eco terrorism or unlawful mining is it?
Moving upward from floor 11-20, things has became more and more dangerous, much to both of their concerns, it bothers Joshua that how come starting at the very BOTTOM is easy and harder as they go up and not vice versa, to this Relicta theorizes that it could be a mechanism set by the gods to prevent people passing the trials without effort, if they started at the top things would get harder as they go down and vice versa. And to Relicta calculation it has been at least a month when they finally reached floor 11, due to this, Joshua can now freely eat a limited amount of monster meat and blood, as his body is slowly welcoming the new substance entering his body daily, this in turn has made Joshua technically not human anymore, but rather something on its way of evolution, Relicta jokingly theorize that Joshua will become so big he'll start to eat the clouds for breakfast and when Joshua agree he just call Joshua stupid because clouds can't be eaten. Their friendship grows by the day.
Around floor 14, Relicta acquired a new ability to extract magic essence from the ores and materials they collected, with the newly obtained essence, he tested it out by merging it with a rusty sword Joshua forged and to both of their amazement, the sword was successfully enhanced with magic and Joshua for the first time of his life, felt what it means to lash out magic attacks, on Relicta part, he decided to use the negative and "cursed" essence which are harmful to feed it to his own void, what this means is that he teleport himself to the void and devour the essence there, normally he would be cursed or die from the effect but in the void where nothing can died, he easily attained the power the curses offers without any drawbacks, further upping his mastery of sorceries.
By floor 19, Relicta has started to picked up a strange aura far from them, it was something he has never seen before, it was demonic, yet frail and weak but definitely something VERY dominant and it would not be excessive to say it's life threatening, despite this, they both keep going, can't really backdown now.
On floor 24, they passed by a lava pool none of them recognized, it wasn't the typical boiling scary orange pool but rather a dark goo, a goo that digested anything they threw down to it except curse essence and soul essence, to Relicta it's like a way to extract something's soul and destroying its body completely, such inhumane thing truly existed in this cruel and merciless world. But taking advantage of it, Relicta enhanced a stick of iron with water essence to protect the outer layers so the iron won't be scorched to ashes, then boil it with the black lava and from there, he forged a blade, it doesn't look outstanding or special but it had something in it, but its magic capability was something he'd never expect, it then became clear to both that this black goo has devoured more beings than they ever could imagined or counted, but it left their essence deep inside, by forging the blade inside the goo, the goo essentially obtained all kind of magic, more than they could keep count of.
"Here you go, name it"
...
A tear ran down Joshua eye, something so mythical, obtained by both their hardships and now Relicta is giving it to him with such casualty, maybe he really was someone he could trust. They shared a hug and Joshua named it "Hashiru".
Exceeding both of its maker expectation, Hashiru absolutely terrorized everything in its path with Joshua skilled swordsmanship and wipe the floor clean with the enemies blood. But they didn't go with haste but determined to find every treasures and valuables in every corners of every floor. Hashiru had the uncanny ability to enhance itself with the direct counter to whatever they're facing, but at the cost of making Joshua absolutely vulnerable to whatever special ability the enemy use, it was basically a skill test between Joshua and the enemy, "To counter everything at the cost of being countered by everything". It was truly something to behold.
Floor 30-49 was just Joshua obliterating everything and honing his skills while Relicta focused on researching everything they found on the way, this proved to bare fruits as he learned many news way to control his void abilities, most notably being able to travel between large distance using void and even peek at places he hasn't gone to by opening a void and looking to that void with another void, he also learned a way to travel not by himself but also helping Joshua use his void without causing harm or accidentally voiding him. Nothing, and i mean NOTHING, could have prepared them for floor 50.
When they reached floor 50, it became clear to Relicta that what awaits them there is the mysterious aura he has been picking up on, and by grace it was a surprise.
It wasn't a mythical monster, an abomination or horrors beyond comprehension, even worse it wasn't a trap or a puzzle they had to solve with limited given time.
It was another being, a humanoid one, how petrifying would it be to spent 2 years travelling from floor 1 to 50 while the aura you realized from way earlier stayed the same all those time, even with all the monsters here, it was truly something to behold, that humanoid was being crucified on a stick, Relicta opened a void near its to observe from afar, but when they look to the void, it couldn't detected anything despite it being right there, they could see it normally but can't see any through the void,
"Oh shit.... It's a PURE pure being, i gotta stay out of this"
"Yeah stay back Relic, i'll handle it"
Slowly approaching the being with cautions, Joshua realized it kinda looked like a woman, but he had met way too many deceiving monsters to be allured by the stranger beauty by now, he violently kicked the wood but it didn't budge, the stranger suddenly opened her eyes, shocked
"H-huh? Is... someone.. there?"
She suddenly plead
"Oh my god, someone's here, please, please, free me, i promise, anything.. i'll do it, PLEASE!"
Joshua looks back at Relicta as if he's asking for suggestion, but before Relicta could speak the woman informed them
"Please, do not go up or down anymore, beyond this room... is a TRAP! That's why i'm here, please listen to me!"
Relicta speaks up
"Now now now there, currently i'm not drunk or anything so i can speculate 2 things here Joshy, this.. woman, is a pure purity being, which by itself is pretty fucking shocking, as you know, Purity and Void beings went extinct long ago, but who am i to judge? I use void, so some remaining pure purity being existing is a possibility, the first scenario is that we listen to her, don't go anymore, free her and get absolutely viciously murdered as both you and i are not humans anymore, and purity beings hate monsters and void beings, especially void beings, second scenarios, we don't listen to her, go up and get unfairly killed by some traps. What do you have to say for yourself missy?"
The woman think for a bit and plead again
"Please believe, i do not wish to bring harm to you or myself, beyond this room is a trap set by the gods! They have stopped granting beings power long ago, do not do this to yourself, please."
Joshua thinks for a bit and start performing a barrage that shook the ground continuously, the woman shocked by his sheer strength braced herself and after Joshua fists started bleeding, the wood has finally been broken by his tremendous strength.
Falling down, Joshua quickly catch her but Relicta still keeps his distant full of suspicion, The woman kneel on the ground, breathing heavily and barely moving, at this point Joshua realized the woman is blind..
"Wait.. i think she's blind?"
Relicta exaplains
"Evolution's a bitch, there's 2 ways to look around, first is organic eyes which both of us use and beings like her use mana observation, basically its just detecting nearby soul essence, so the eyes are just vanities. With that logic, she probably can't detect me."
The woman finally regain her senses, starts to look around frantically but Joshua quickly kneeled down, and hold her still with his hands, it surprises him how fragile and soft the skin he was holding, as if she could be torn apart if he ever dared to use slightly more forces.
"My savior.. please.. tell me your name. Are you alone? I heard 2 voices, or have i gone mad? My name is Raphael."
Relicta approach them, Joshua then release her and Relicta hold her up, seeing her legs are not moving much.
"The name's Kanjuden Relicta, you can't detect me right? I'm a void user, not BEING, so don't get so alarmed. And this is-"
"Bro she's out cold."
"Oh."
Setting up a camp in the room, they settled down and started to discuss what just happened
"You know i never thought i'd live long enough to experience carrying a naked purity woman while venturing with a crackhead who drink blood to gain strength, quite the life i'm living"
Joshua sighed at him,
"Casting that aside, you think she really meant it? Like there's traps above and everything"
Relicta lie down and reply in a low, sleepy tone
"Gotta wait mate, night."
TO BE CONTINUED....