Chapter 84: The Unknown Land (Part 1)

Zhao Tianhe gazed at the empty, cavernous hall before him, an uneasy feeling gnawing at his heart. Aside from the children hanging from the ceiling, the hall was lined with hundreds of doorways of varying heights, set into the walls all around him.

He approached the nearest doorway and activated his super-hearing; from deep within the pitch-black opening, he heard the unsettling creak of bones grinding together. Sensing trouble, Zhao Tianhe wisely refrained from stepping inside and instead began checking each doorway in turn.

It was obvious now—he was in some kind of underground labyrinth. He had no memory of how he’d arrived, but danger was clearly imminent, especially since both Artoria and Elé’s battle forms were still on cooldown. At least he could still summon Elé in her normal form, and in theory, enter the daily realm twice more—provided he found some food first.

‘Find a safe place, summon Elé, and get some answers. Then... hm?’ As he searched and pondered, Zhao Tianhe glanced at his own stats and was startled by what he found.

A new status called “Physical Soul” had appeared among his attributes. Though his base stats were unchanged, his mana and life force were now merged, their recovery rates stacking together, and spellcasting required expending life force instead of mana. Experimenting with a simple cantrip, Zhao Tianhe found even the weakest spell brought a sharp pain to some part of his body. If he overdid it, he might well end up killing himself.

“Thank goodness I have the Evil Cage artifact—my mana and recovery rate are still manageable,” he muttered, relieved.

After a long search, he finally found a doorway that was completely still and silent. Moving cautiously, Zhao Tianhe slipped inside and found himself in a wide corridor. Every hundred meters or so, a dim cavern yawned on either side.

Suddenly, the ground trembled violently. Sensing danger, he realized a massive creature was approaching from the distance. He sprinted into the nearest cavern for shelter.

But as soon as he entered, the environment shifted. The shadowy tunnel vanished, replaced by a perfectly ordinary bedroom in a civilian home; the entrance he’d just come through was now a simple door.

It was a normal bedroom only in terms of furnishings: a bed, a table and chairs, a bookcase. Yet the room itself was vast—over two hundred square meters—making it feel strangely empty.

“What’s going on here?” Zhao Tianhe muttered, frowning as he cycled through his array of heightened senses, slowly making his way to the bed and sitting down.

“My sixth sense is tingling, but only faintly. What does that mean?” After a moment’s thought, he decided to summon Elé. He needed to understand exactly what he was dealing with.

In response to his call, Elé appeared before him at once.

“Tianhe!” Smiling, she approached and cupped his face in her hands, giving his cheeks a playful squeeze. “You really are alive! But... your state is a bit odd, isn’t it? And this place... it feels kind of like the Underworld.”

“Who knows...” Zhao Tianhe replied with a wry smile. “Actually, I was hoping you could tell me—what is this place?”

“Well, um...” Elé looked embarrassed, fiddling with her fingers. “It’s a long story...”

When she finished her explanation, Zhao Tianhe was left bewildered.

“So, I’m in a soul state right now?” He looked at his hand, clenching and unclenching his fist. “It feels so real...”

“It’s probably the laws of the dungeon at work,” Elé replied. “I’m not entirely sure, but it seems to be a realm governed by rules similar to those of the Underworld.”

“And... I’m sorry. If I hadn’t insisted on visiting that simulated dungeon, you probably wouldn’t have been dragged into this mess.” Elé looked at him apologetically, her expression forlorn.

“Never mind, honestly. I wanted to see what it was all about, too,” Zhao Tianhe said, trying to comfort her. “Besides, this isn’t the time to argue over who’s at fault. The real issue is how we get out of here.”

“Well, according to what I’ve heard, the theory is that if you defeat the dungeon boss, you gain control of this place. Then you can open a rift and free both yourself and the children’s souls,” Elé explained.

Artoria had told her all this back in the daily realm; Elé’s summoning periods were brief, and she hadn’t had time to learn much before being forced to return.

“But there were a lot of adults who entered the simulated dungeon. Why am I the only one caught up in this?” Zhao Tianhe wondered aloud.

“Well, that’s because...” Elé grew even more awkward. “Because you were the only one who ate the candy...”

The candy had been carefully made—only one piece, and delicious—to ensure that only a child would fall for it. No one had expected Elé to feed it to Zhao Tianhe out of spite...

“Forget it, it doesn’t matter now,” Zhao Tianhe sighed. “The most important thing is to survive. As long as I make it to tomorrow and can summon you and Artoria, a mere C+-rank dungeon is nothing to worry about!”

“True, but... isn’t that painting a bit strange?” Elé nodded, pointing at Zhao Tianhe. “The woman in it seems to be getting closer...”

Alarmed, Zhao Tianhe turned to look at the painting hanging on the wall opposite the bed. He’d noticed the paintings when he first entered—artwork covered all four walls, but he hadn’t thought much of it until now.

Now he realized that one painting was truly unsettling: it depicted a woman in a blue gown, her face obscured in shadow, as if she were drifting eerily through the background. And she was rapidly approaching, visibly closing in on the edge of the canvas—soon she might burst through!

“Elé, go back now. You can’t fight in your current form,” Zhao Tianhe said without hesitation.

Elé nodded and promptly faded away. She knew that right now, the best thing she could do was not hold him back.

‘Destroy the painting?’ Zhao Tianhe conjured a spark of fire at his fingertip and flung a basic cantrip at the canvas. But something bizarre happened—the spark was absorbed into the painting itself!

“Absorbs attacks?!” Zhao Tianhe thought of ramping up the flames, but seeing this, he immediately dismissed the idea.

In truth, his instincts were right. Before the creature in the painting emerged, it was nearly invulnerable. Every attack was drawn into the canvas and easily dodged, the damage dispersed among the tiny subspaces in the painting’s background.

Still, Zhao Tianhe didn’t just stand idly by. He cast protective shields, triggered three high-level arcane wards, and then layered several first-level healing spells on himself—one of which unexpectedly triggered a powerful light-based healing spell.

‘Come to think of it, so long as my luck holds, I’ve practically got infinite health and mana—though it does sting a bit...’ Zhao Tianhe realized this “Physical Soul” state actually suited him rather well. ‘And for some reason, every time I trigger a heightened magical intuition, I get this subtle sense—almost as if I’m on the verge of a breakthrough...’