Legacy of the Betelgeuse

Chapter 247 - Episode 247: The Lost Dynasty, Mauron Empire. (3)

I'm standing in front of the narrow walls while Kingstar and the others are behind me, I wonder why they want me to go first, is it for punishment that I didn't help them out in gathering information since my account got suspended and didn't show up during the online meeting or they just want to see how I deal with the death traps so they can follow my footsteps. Anyway, I look at the death traps and there are 30 of them in total. I'm observing the death traps and finding the right path and timing, I know that I can easily just walk past this without having to worry about the death traps, but I want to try this on my own and see if the system is going to assist me or not.

After I know the right timing, I take a deep breath and stretch my body and as soon as the arrows are shot from the wall, I immediately run into the narrow walls. The next trap is the spikes from the ground, I run as fast as possible and then slide on the ground then I hear a loud sound coming from behind my ear, I look back and the spikes almost hit my head. The third trap is the statues that breathe fires with random patterns, heights, and gaps. There are 3 stacks of statues in front of me, so there's no way I can climb up to avoid the fire from below.

When the statue in front of me shot the fire, I immediately walk past it and keep running forward while keeping an eye on the statues in front of me, I see the mouth of the statue in front of me starts glowing and so I walk toward the wall and climb it up then push myself to the other side, but the statue in front of me is about to shot the fire from its mouth as well, without hesitation I duck my head and pushing myself down using my hands. I land on the ground and start running because the statues in front of me just shot the fire and I think I can make it to the end if I run fast enough, the last statue shot the fire but I'm already on the other side and preparing for the 5th deathtrap.

This is the hardest one from the rest of the deathtrap, dozens of sharp gears are spinning on the walls and on the ground. There's no way I can walk past this one by walking through it, so I look at the pattern and thankfully it's repeating the same pattern over and over. I'm slowly walking back and keep staring at those gears, then when the timing is right, I run as fast as possible and take a huge leap and dive toward the second half of the 5th deathtrap, I roll over and take another leap.

I sigh with relief because I manage to survive the 5th trap without a scratch. Everyone is looking at me with their mouths wide open in disbelief. Now the hardest part of the trap is gone, I can do the rest without a problem at all. From swinging blades, huge holes, boulders, spikes on walls, spikes from the ceiling, sharp invisible strings, hammers from the walls, poison gas, and so many other things. I manage to get through them all without a problem and the players that in front of me are looking at me with disbelief, one of them is shaking his head.

"Holy sh*t... how did you do that?!"

I just shake my head and keep my head down.

Kingstar is clearing his throat and nervously looks at the death traps.

"That was amazing... I guess it's my turn now..."

I'm watching him walking and running past the death traps, he's following my steps but he fails miserably and it looks so damn funny, but in the end, he manages to reach the other side with us even though he loses 4 lives from this stage. He looks at me and shakes his head while walking past me, I'm holding my laughter by covering my mouth with my hand.

I look at the time and we have been here for almost a day because we are waiting until the last player to reach this side of the area. We make a camp while waiting for them and rest for a bit, Ivonna is cooking dinner for both of us while watching the players in the narrow walls. We are far away from the other players since I don't want to be exposed to my real identity. She grabs 2 plates and puts the beef mushroom souffle omelette on them, she gives one of the plates to me and then sits next to me.

"This will take at least a day, so we can get some sleep because the next stage is hard. I know that you know about it, so I really hope that tomorrow we will be able to clear it."

I nod while eating the omelette, she keeps staring at me and I look at her while tilting my head.

"What's wrong? If you're asking me how's the food, then this is delicious."

Ivonna chuckles and shakes her head.

"No, it's nothing. I was just thinking about the thing you said back then that you were unable to clear this dungeon back then. I'm curious was it because of the second stage or?"

I'm nodding while chewing my food.

"Yeah, that's one of the reasons but mostly it was because of that. I'm so tired of retrying over and over just to be able to pass the second stage, and the other one is still a secret. You will find out about it soon."

Ivonna is humming with understanding, then she pushes me with her shoulder and I look at her while raising my eyebrows. She's shyly smiling at me and then she looks around.

"Want to sleep together tonight?"

I look at her while smiling.

"Uh, in the game? Yeah, I would love to."

Ivonna is laughing quietly while I'm looking at her with confusion, then looks at me. 

"Well, I guess we can sleep together in the game as well."

I just realized what she meant, and I look at her while smiling happily, but then Ivonna stands up and take the empty plate in my hand.

"Oh, yeah. I want both of them."

Ivonna is chuckling and nods then she walks away to go back to her tent, but then she stops and turns around. She smiles while looking at me.

"Let's wait until the other fall asleep then. For both, I mean."

I nod with understanding then Ivonna leaves to go back to her tent.

I wake up and Ivonna is still asleep in my arm. I just remember what Diamond said back then, I never thought it would feel so real and I wonder if I wet myself when I log out from the game. I wake Ivonna up and she looks at me and smiles while she's trying to open her eyes.

"Good morning."

I smile.

"Good morning."

I get out of the tent and put all my equipment while checking my surrounding if anyone is near my tent, then I tell her that it's safe for her to get out of the tent. We both walk down to where Kingstar and the others' tents are, They're all already awake and gathering near the gate. We both approach them and Kingstar looks at both of us.

"Ah, you both finally awake, there's still a dozen players left on the other side and they're on their way here."

Ivonna looks at the narrow walls.

"How many that failed on this stage?"

Kingstar sighs.

"84.000 ish players, but that's not the only problem. Almost half of the players that managed to get to this side lost all their lives and they're on their last life right now. I don't think those players can survive the 4th stage with 1 life."

We both are humming with understanding. I look at the players and cross my arms.

"So, not just we already lost more than half of the total players, we are also going to lose another half of our current total players. That sounds bad."

Kingstar is nodding in agreement.

"Well, let's just hope for the best and hope that they all can make it out alive on the 4th stage."

We are all gone quiet then a notification appears.

[You successfully survived the third stage!]

[The third stage will be closed in: 120 minutes]

[From now on, you will not get extra chances. The chances you have left will be the only chances you have until the end of the dungeon!]

Kingstar takes a deep breath and exhales deeply.

"Alright, that's our call. Let's gather the players and go to the next stage."

We all nod with understanding.

We are standing in front of the gate and Kingstar looks back at the players.

"Before we go in, I just want to say, good luck to every one of you. I hope that you can survive the 4th stage."

All the players are nodding and looking at each other to cheer each other. Kingstar then looks at the gate.

"Let's open the gate.. May the Betelgeuse bless us all."