Chapter 569 - Paperclips

The scarred woman was unconscious but she still breathed.

“As I thought, this girl has some serious issues…” Everelle said with a sigh, “At least it looks like she survived. It’s crazy that she could block that…”

“What… What even was that?” Sofia asked as she picked up Velania to prop her up on a bone chair.

“Humanity’s answer to- “ Everelle was cut off mid sentence, “Yeah, of course that’s all censored… What can I say, even? It was a big bomb. Meant to explode things. The second to last tier of human destructive technology, I would say. Just because we didn’t have mana doesn’t mean we never progressed from swords and bows.”

“Destructive technology… How can you even do that without magic? The thing was flying even!”

“Ahah, believe me if the censor let me tell you I could and would prattle on about it for days until you begged me to stop, but alas, big boom is all I’m allowed to say pretty much.”

“... Also… Second to last? What can you even make that’s more destructive than that?”

Everelle shrugged, “Paperclips.”

“Paperclips?”

“You heard me. That would have been my last word if the Sundial didn’t do the trick. Again, cannot explain more I’m afraid. But it is a lot worse than the bomb, in theory at least. Never seen it used in my lifetime though, unlike the bomb.”

“I thought your world didn’t have monsters, what would you even need that bomb for?” Sofia asked, more for herself than anything else, since she knew Everelle couldn’t answer. “Seeing that blow up from a bit farther away must have been quite the spectacle…”

Everelle laughed. “Yes. Very much so. The craziest thing I was given the opportunity to see in my life; before I was literally summoned to another world, that is.”

Sofia silently nodded, but in her head, the only thing she could think about was whether she could ever recreate this explosion.

Would five hundred million mana in an explosive bolt rival the destructive power of that bomb? Either way, she had a newfound respect for the magicless humans from the hero world. In comparison, where was this world’s human technology at? To cite Everelle: swords and bows.

“Seems we’re stuck here until she wakes up,” Everelle said, having knocked on the nearby wall and verified that the protective shield was still holding.

“I’m sure it won’t take her too long… It’s not the first time… Also… Shouldn’t you have been sent back to your own trial by now?” Sofia asked.

“No idea. Maybe it didn’t work because the game ended so abruptly. Did we even win? Looks like we broke the artifact somehow.”

“I don’t know either, to begin with I have no idea why she jumped in to protect us like that.”

“I- I was scared,” a soft voice sounded from the side, “I thought you two might die for real, so I just…” Velania managed to squeeze out before she started to cry.

Sofia grabbed a handkerchief from her storage and presented it to Velania with a smile. “Here. Thank you for worrying about us, we’re fine, alright?”

Velania accepted the tissue with a weak nod, using it to wipe her tears and blow her nose. “I’m sorry… I’m such a terrible host…” she complained, more tears rolling down her face.

“You think so? I had a lot of fun,” Everelle commented, “I won’t be forgetting this day for a long time. Seems my last word broke your artifact though, I do feel a bit guilty about that…”

Velania shook her head, “It’s nothing. I don’t need it anymore anyway.”

“Does that mean we won?” Sofia asked.

“I used magic on you to push you away from the thing,” Velania said, “Since I used my magic directly on you I broke the rules so I lost.”

“Hmm… In any other context I might argue that it didn’t count, but it’s not like you stand to win anything by making me lose… So I’ll accept that. How can you be sure you won’t need the orb anymore though? What if I fail the last test?”

“I don’t think you will,” Velania stated outright, clutching the handkerchief in her palm.

“Alright, well, glad that everything worked out in the end. Thank you for the opportunity to relive the Sundial, Sofia. I’m about to be sent back, I think. And Velania, it was a pleasure to have you as a host, I hope we’ll get to hang out again.”

Sofia heard a dog bark, and Everelle disappeared.

“Gone just like that…” Sofia said, staring at the empty spot Everelle had been in just a second ago. Velania started to stand up, she was no longer crying but her legs were very shaky. Sofia went to her side to help her up. “Are you going to be alright? Don’t push yourself if you’re going to faint again, I can wait.”

“I’m good… Th-thank you. Let’s go to the last trial,” the scarred woman said with renewed resolve in her eyes.

Velania took Sofia back to her indoor forest, and with a thought, she made the water in the lake disappear, revealing a spiraling staircase going down.

To Sofia who was getting impatient to see the final test, the descent on the moist steps was agonizingly long despite them going quite fast, pretty much running down the stairs.

“How deep are we going exactly?” She finally asked after about half an hour, sensing that Bookie and Pareth were easily more than ten kilometers upward from where she was.

“Quite deep. We built a safe chamber for the relic in the upper stratum of the forbidden layer, inside of a leyline hole,” Velania explained.

“The forbidden layer?” Sofia repeated, having never even heard of that name.

Velania stopped where she was, “You don’t know about it?”

“Absolutely never heard of it,” Sofia confessed.

“Hmm… Well you’re still a bit weak… The forbidden layer is where the Kleptra originally came from. It’s the deepest layer of the planet that we can explore before the mana concentration becomes so high that it’s lethal even to the ascended. We call it the forbidden layer because of how weird it is. Most people who go there never come back. Even the Kleptra have stopped trying to live there… At least before we built this place.”

“Lethal to the ascended… The mana concentration down there is that high?”

“It’s suffocating,” Velania confirmed with a nod, “and the forbidden layer is even worse. The ‘rules’ there are all over the place. There are even parts where being too strong will get you killed because of the strange ways the mana leylines react to each other. But it’s also suicide to go there at before you’re that strong, because the creatures down there are so strange, so basically no one can even enter these parts,” she explained, shivering.

“You mean to say there are parts of this planet that no one has ever explored?”

“That’s information from ten thousand years ago, but supposedly yes… Although, the forbidden layer wasn’t always like that, since there are many ruins from the lost epoch there…”

“Say less,” Sofia decisively said, “You convinced me,”

“To never go?” Velania naively asked.

“To go as soon as I possibly can,” Sofia said in the same breath.

Velania frowned. “That’s no good! You will die. You’re not allowed to lose Auntie’s artifact!”

“You’re saying there are ruins from the lost epoch that nobody has ever discovered and that I will not be able to explore if I level up too much? That’s what you said?”

“Y- Yes but…”

“It’s settled then.”

Velania sighed, starting to walk down the stairs again. “At least wait until your next breakthrough… And please do a lot of research before you go…”

Velania spent the rest of the descent telling Sofia everything she knew about the forbidden layer, while Sofia had to explain why she was so interested in the lost Epoch.

In doing so, Sofia discovered that Velania knew the exact location of one of the four [False Lord] skills, which was, of course, in the forbidden layer.

After a while Sofia reached what she thought was the end of the descent, but ended up only being the end of the staircase, a small room where there was nothing but a gaping hole going straight down.

“This is where I stop,” Velania announced, “This is about a tenth of the way down, I think, I would love to come with you but I can’t go any further, or the jungle above will start to disappear…”

“Oh… Wait… a tenth of the way down? We’ve been running down the stairs for hours…”

“As I said, the forbidden layer is quite deep,” Velania answered with a giggle, “Romuald was here just a bit ago so your last helper is probably already waiting down there with the instructions for the final test.”

“Wait… The artifact is out of range of both you and Romuald? That can’t be safe…”

“Only a child of Sorrow can open the inner chamber, just like the main entrance. And auntie would have already reacted if something had happened to it.”

“I can’t argue with that. I will be going then…”

“You should take frequent stops on your way down,” Velania advised, “the change to the higher mana concentration can be quite dangerous even if you’re only going to the upper stratum.”

“Understood. Well… I’ll be right back with the divine artifact,” Sofia said with a smile before she jumped down the dark hole.

“Good luck, Sofia!” she heard Velania shout from above.