Chapter 105: The Key to Somewhere

[Lee Jeong Hun's POV]

Before heading into the dungeon, I checked all items I had in my inventory. Rations, clothes, weapon condition. It's vital to double-check all of it before heading down as you may never know what's hiding behind those portals. Most of the awakeners wouldn't even make it back because of being under-prepared or over-prepared but for the wrong settings. But I have an edge compared to the rest. 

The system.

The system has been useful in accelerating my growth in gaining strength at a tremendous speed. However, the origin of where it came from or how only I have it is still a mystery to me even through multiple regressions. I never get to uncover the mystery of this system no matter how much I regress.

However, everything I died and returned, the first thing that appeared on my face was the status menu. Not a single skill I have earned remained, as if like someone hit a reset button. Every one of my skills was gone. All except one. A skill that was blurred out and locked. Previously, I was killed by one of the dukes of hell, Amdusias. The Duke launched an attack on a human camp when hell was brought to earth. Racing myself to the site, I ran berserk slaying every Demon in sight, and went straight for the kill when he appeared. But that was before I stopped myself as one of the human children was taken, hostage. And before I could make a move, there was a hole in my chest as a tree branch was sticking out of it, with my heart pierced through.

Though it has been multiple regressions, I despaired through every one of them, as I thought of it as a curse that I had to die gruesomely at the hands of some sadistic monster, as if I was just a plaything. I should have gone insane all those years ago. But halfway through it, I stopped getting afraid. Like playing a retro game, I learned new things the further I explored. There are always new events or unexpected events that happened in each run, but the disaster that leads to the end of the world would inevitably happened. There were so many instances where I tried to prevent the disaster from happening. But something would always go wrong, which ended up failing. It was as if fate had already decided that history would never change.

Slaying one of the Kings of Hell was probably the highest impact I made on the world before I was dead due to the massive injury sustained from fighting him.

It's clear that whoever or whatever gave me this feature has an agenda or goal of using me as their pawn. Fine by me. Like how you're using me, I will use you to gain strength further than before and mark my words. I will devour you.

As the preparation check is completed, I took out the key. A notification screen appeared.

<Do you want to use the key?>

<Yes>

<No>

I clicked 'Yes'.

Another screen appeared.

<Are you sure?>

The question took me aback. This was the first time the system had asked me this question when I used any of its features. Though it took me by surprise, my answer was still the same. 

I moved my hands with no hesitation and clicked, 'Yes'.

Without warning, the key in my hands was gone. 

As I waited a brief moment, nothing happened.

Then, lights started appearing around as they combined, blinding my eyes, and in the end as they envelop my entire body.

Before I knew it, I was at a different location.

The previous relaxed and calm air was now laced with a heavily pressured and intimating gaze. The surrounding atmosphere was so tense that a normal human would probably be passed out from the pressure.

With my hand on the ground, I could feel the general texture of the ground.

It was certainly perfectly flat and well-maintained, with equal straight cracks found at the same measure for each length.

It was a brick.

Which meant this was not in the wilderness or a cave. It was a structure of some sort.

But currently, I do need a light source as my surroundings were pitch black.

Placing my finger on my forehead and pointing it upwards, I started chanting.

[Oh, light shroud in blackness. I call upon thy, shine bright under the space thou provide thy. Shine.]

A small ball of light starts manifesting from my finger as rays of light emerge, bouncing off the darkness and showing everything in sight.

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As I predicted, surrounding me was a wall. In a way, it appears to look like I'm in a box enclosure. But no sign of life can be detected around the area.

No sound.

No, nothing.

I thought that I felt gazes hiding from the shadows everywhere, but as I looked around, I was all alone.

Lying against my back was a dead-end. The only way I could move anywhere was forward. With no other choice, I started traveling forward, seeing where it would bring me.

After what felt like hours, at the end of the long hallway was a wide space.

As I stepped past the hole in the hallway, It was still another space. This time, however, it was rectangular with nothing but a statue placed at the end of the room as well as a circle platform at the other end of the statue. Surrounding the walls were dried-up torches that were placed on the torch handle.

With the statue as my only clue, I head towards it to take a closer look and inspect it.

The statue itself depicts what appears to be a king sitting on a throne seat. The figure dons a suit of armor covered from head to toe. The helmet itself had a crown attached to its exterior, and it was fully covered, so there was no way of seeing how the King looked. 

There was a stoned crafted fur attached to the armor shown in the statue similar to how a lion has its mane.

The statue sat on the throne while placing both of his hands on a sword that was placed on the ground.

It almost seemed...intimidating.

Without thinking too much, I double-checked to see if there was anything that would allow me to proceed on. Other than this room, there was only the hallway where I came from previously and the circle platform.

But nothing. No secret compartment, no text or speech, nothing. It was another dead end. Though the situation might seem hopeless, I remained my composure and continue looking for any sort of clues. The key wouldn't just send me here just to die. 

After the next few hours, sadly there were still no clues for a way out of this place.

I sat down to catch my breath. No matter how I see it, the only legitimate clues I had was just the throne and the random platform at the end of the other room.

I closed my eyes and continued thinking before realizing there was a trial of a path from the statue that leads to the circle platform.

Without thinking too much, I made my way to the platform and stand right in the middle of it. Looking in the direction of the statue. Nothing happened again.

So with no choice, I tried throwing attacks and using magic on the statue. Nothing worked.

Looking in front. The statue itself does look odd. Wouldn't a king normally be in royal clothing? Why would he be wearing a full set of armor and have a weapon placed on the ground?

The armor itself looked like it was crafted by a Master while the sword placed on the ground had some gibberish engravings on it. Next is the helmet. The head of the statue was positioned in a way as if it was looking at me. To be exact at whoever was standing on the platform.

It looks as if...the king was ready for battle. More accurately, it was a challenge.

Then it hit me. Whoever standing on the circle platform is the one challenging for the throne.

Grabbing [Heavenly Demonic's Sword], I stabbed the circle platform on the ground.

A notification appeared.

[Are you sure?]

Another odd message. Without hesitation, I selected Yes, and in that one second, no milliseconds that I selected yes.

The entire air turned cold, as the humid atmosphere of the enclosed space was now replaced with a chilling wind. The ground shakes and vibrates while the exit to the hallway were now shut.

Looking at the statue again, it remained the same even with all the shaking in the ground. However, a small glimpse of light can be seen shining through the Helmet of the statue.

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