Chapter 52
First, I closed the gallery.
“I just need to get out of this golden chest, right?”
The chest would close the moment I picked up two or more orbs.
But I had a skill that seemed capable of getting me out before that happened.
That was the first method that came to mind.
I opened my inventory and pushed [Wrath of the Sun God] inside.
One orb was now in my inventory. The chest was still open.
I took a deep breath.
I reached toward [Forgetfulness of the God of Time] and [Tremor of the Thunder God] among the displayed orbs.
The moment I grabbed these two at the same time, the chest would close.
I fixed my gaze on the open ceiling of the chest.
I placed my hands on the two orbs, and.
At that very moment.
“Black Shift!”
I activated Ribbon’s active skill.
This was the moment when the black mist was supposed to pull me outside.
“Huh?”
Nothing happened.
Bang-!!!!!!!!
The lid had already closed at a speed too fast to see, while I remained standing in place.
“Uh... the activation...”
I waited through the 30-second cooldown and tried Black Shift again, but it did not work at all.
Apparently, the inside of this chest was an area where skill use itself had been sealed.
“Isn’t this a scam...?”
I put the artifacts back in their places.
Creak-
The lid slowly opened again.
“So it blocked skills...”
Then, the second method.
It was a crude but straightforward method.
‘Break the chest from the inside.’
I was now a superhuman who could break through marble walls with my bare hands.
Common sense told me I should be able to tear apart something made of gold.
Swish-
I raised my scythe high.
I brought it down toward the wall of the golden chest.
KRAAAAAAANG-!!!!
The deafening boom reverberated inside the chest.
An enormous backlash, as if my grip were about to burst, traveled through me.
“Ugh!”
I staggered back several steps from the impact that sent my scythe bouncing away.
For gold, it was not soft at all.
I hurriedly checked the wall.
“...”
There wasn’t even a scratch.
“With skill nullification and insane durability... isn’t this chest the final boss...?”
It was enough to make me think that.
“...Then, the third method.”
“What if I throw them outside and smuggle them out?”
I wondered what would happen if I wasn’t holding two of them inside the chest.
I would throw one outside, take it out, and then carry the other one out afterward.
But it wasn’t something I could try blindly.
There was a risk it might fall to the floor and break, and if the lid closed when I threw one out from inside the chest, I might end up trapped inside alone forever.
So I needed help.
“Blood Knight, come in here!”
Taat-
The Blood Knight jumped into the chest the moment I said that.
Then I showed him the artifacts and gave him an order.
“Uh... first, pick up this orb and try throwing it outside the chest. If the lid stays open, then throw this one and this one out in order.”
The Blood Knight nodded and picked up the orb with one hand.
”I’ll go outside and catch it, so throw it when I give you the signal.”
After saying that, he lightly jumped out of the golden chest.
The chest was still open.
“Throw it now!”
Whoosh-
The Blood Knight followed my command.
I caught the orb as it came flying in a parabola from outside the chest.
It was [Forgetfulness of the God of Time].
Clack.
I caught it with both hands.
I held my breath and watched the lid of the chest.
“Oh...!”
It remained unchanged.
Even though one orb had been ejected outside, the golden lid did not move at all.
“This actually works...?”
It had been the method I thought least likely to succeed.
“Nice! Good job, Blood Knight! Now throw out [Wrath of the Sun God] too!”
I gave my next order with a triumphant shout.
Then.
KRAAAAAAANG-!!!!
The enormous golden lid slammed shut at an insane speed.
“......”
It probably would have closed before he even threw it.
It must have shut the moment he touched it.
“Blood Knight! Put it down!”
Then the lid slowly opened again, as if to mock me.
I picked up [Forgetfulness of the God of Time], which I had taken outside, and trudged back into the chest.
“Phew...”
The Blood Knight, who had put the orb back in its place, stood blankly inside the chest.
It was time to try my final idea.
Perhaps the chest was applying a ‘one orb per person’ rule.
“What if we increase the number of people?”
I called over Varang, who had been waiting outside the chest.
“Varang! You come inside too!”
No sooner had the order been given than.
Taat!
Varang jumped into the enormous golden chest.
“...Good job.”
I wasn’t sure whether Varang could pick up an orb with those paws.
Somehow, it felt like I was a resourceful middle-aged woman mobilizing her preschool-aged children’s tiny hands to claim several freebies.
‘Now I finally understand.’
I had thought it was pathetic, though.
“I’ll take [Forgetfulness of the God of Time], so you two each pick up one of these.”
The Blood Knight and Varang stood in front of the orbs and reached out.
“Three, two, one!”
We all grabbed our respective orbs at the same time.
Bang!!!!!!!!
The lid slammed shut at once. It did so with unbelievable ferocity.
Darkness engulfed the inside of the chest once again.
It was a failure.
“Ah, put them down!”
As soon as all three of us released the orbs, the closed lid opened again.
It seemed this kind of trick wouldn’t work.
‘That lady managed it, though...’
In any case, I had learned something here.
The chest’s system seemed to detect how many orbs were being held inside, or changes in the total number of orbs bound to the chest.
“So it really won’t work.”
I dropped my scythe and slumped down onto the floor of the chest.
Suddenly, a ridiculous thought occurred to me.
Could that pitch-black hand that had crushed Treasure Keeper earlier break this chest too?
Feeling dejected, I shouted into the air.
“Demon King! Try breaking this chest!”
Of course, it was nonsense.
I should have considered it a relief that nothing happened.
Only silence filled the air.
“...”
I had tried every method I could think of.
At this point, I had no regrets.
Exactly one had to be chosen.
It seemed that was how things had been decided.
“...Nice try.”
After thinking that, I mulled over what Item Lucker had written in the gallery earlier.
In terms of actual use, early-to-mid-game god-tier, [Wrath of the Sun God]?
Mid-game god-tier, [Tremor of the Thunder God]?
Effective even in the very late game, [Forgetfulness of the God of Time]?
As Item Lucker had said, none of the choices seemed bad.
But ultimately, if I wanted to climb to the 1,000th floor, it would be better to choose the one that remained useful until the end.
I decided to choose [Forgetfulness of the God of Time]. I had been considering it my first choice all along.
Its effect was to slow down time immediately before being hit.
Unlike [Tremor of the Thunder God], which required close-range attacks, it would be useful right away.
It also seemed like it might pair well with the Envoy Realm, though I wasn’t sure whether I could use it again.
And [Wrath of the Sun God]... honestly, it was a little iffy.
Hadn’t Treasure Keeper endured it once earlier?
That was mostly because Treasure Keeper had grown stronger over 400 years, but in any case, if a 100th-floor monster could tank that damage, it would certainly turn into nothing more than fireworks by the middle of the climb.
At that moment.
“Hmm...?”
A spark suddenly went off in my mind.
Goosebumps spread across my entire body.
“The fact that I’ve seen [Wrath of the Sun God] before means...”
I hurriedly lowered the orb I was holding.
Then I poked my head out of the chest.
Outside the chest, on the marble floor where the pile of gold coins had disappeared.
The corpse of the intruder I had beheaded lay sprawled there.
I shifted my gaze toward the corpse’s chest.
“That means [Wrath of the Sun God] is in that corpse, doesn’t it?”
I immediately jumped out of the chest.
I checked the man’s corpse lying on the floor.
I searched his body, but I couldn’t see the orb.
“...”
But the explosion this man had used was definitely [Wrath of the Sun God].
Could an artifact’s effect apply even if it wasn’t physically carried?
“If that’s the case...”
I wasn’t giving up just yet.
I hoisted the corpse up and carried it into the golden chest.
Blood stained the floor of the chest, but I didn’t care.
“I’ll return one.”
If the golden chest’s system closed it by checking the number of orbs remaining.
And if that man’s corpse contained [Wrath of the Sun God].
Wouldn’t the chest recognize the [Wrath of the Sun God] inside the corpse and mistakenly think that an orb was still remaining?
Could it work that way?
“Let’s try it.”
First, I picked up the red-glowing [Wrath of the Sun God] orb.
Whoosh.
I put it into my inventory.
The total number of orbs in the chest was now eight.
If I picked up one more, the chest would close.
But.
The next moment, when I raised [Forgetfulness of the God of Time].
“...!”
The lid of the chest was still wide open.
“This is insane.”
A shiver ran down my spine.
The golden chest was definitely recognizing the corpse as [Wrath of the Sun God].
“Everyone! Let’s get out!”
We immediately left the golden chest.
The moment we did.
Bang-!!!!
Behind me, the enormous golden chest shut completely with a heavy boom.
Then the chest slowly lost its glow and disappeared as if sinking into the floor.
I took the two Legendary artifacts out of my inventory.
[Wrath of the Sun God] and [Forgetfulness of the God of Time].
“Fucking legendary.”
I burst out laughing, practically delirious.
I had doubled my reward.
I held one of the two orbs in each hand and adjusted the angle so their light would be captured well by the camera.
Click.
I immediately opened the gallery.
______
Title: 1 + 1 Success!
Author: ㅇㅇ(100F)
{A photo of me holding [Wrath of the Sun God] and [Forgetfulness of the God of Time] in both hands}
I couldn’t manage three, though haha.
As soon as I posted it, I hit refresh, and comments began appearing.
[Comments]
ㅇㅇ(312F) : ????????
ㅇㅇ(461F) : Huh???
Fenrir : No way... you actually brought several out.
ㅇㅇ(278F) : Two?
ㅇㅇ(648F) : Fuck, how the hell did you do that????
ㅇㅇ(643F) : You said you could only choose one!!!! You said you couldn’t get out once the chest closed!!!
ㅇㅇ(197F) : Everyone who told me not to do it, let’s all lie face down for now lol
ㅇㅇ(760F) : Two Legendary artifacts, holy shitㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
ㅇㅇ(543F) : Double orbs ㄷㄷ
SSS-Rank Item Lucker : Uh... was it originally a choice of two...?
An uproar covered the screen.
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(344F) : Seems like you used teleportation or a spirit form to carry them out...
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(100F)(Author) : ㄴㄴ I tried all that, but it didn’t work. I think I tried about three more methods besides those.
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(240F) : It’s legendary that you thought of five methods tooㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(297F) : ? Then how did you do it;;;
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(720F) : T E L L U S N O W.
Questions poured in one after another.
I started typing.
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(100F)(Author) : I put in the corpse of the intruder who used [Wrath of the Sun God], and the chest recognized it as the artifact. I fooled the chest with that and carried out bothㅋㅋㅋ
ㅇㅇ(249F) : Huh?
ㅇㅇ(312F) : An intruder?
ㅇㅇ(461F) : An intruder came?
ㅇㅇ(578F) : What are you talking about?
I stared blankly at the screen.
“Oh, right.”
Only then did I remember that I still hadn’t reported the intruder.
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(100F)(Author) : Ah... I guess I hadn’t mentioned that another intruder had come?
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(461F) : ????????
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(628F) : What?