Chapter 172: Anchored in Doubt

’So, um, is this it? I was expecting more.’ For a first floor, this seemed… empty, he would have expected it to be one of the hardest, to instantly get done with those that don’t have any chance to proceed. So then why was this whole thing hollow?

There weren’t even any stairs in this place, so how was he supposed to ascend?

…

’No, but seriously… what is going on?’

There had to be something, I mean, could it really only be a huge empty room? What kind of first floor is that? How would anyone even die from this? How would anyone fail?

There had to be something about it.

This was the Tides after all, it couldn’t be this simple. There had to be a trap, there had to. Maybe if he moved forward, he was going to fall, or the monster would jump him.

But where was he even, where was he even hiding, and how? Did he have some sort of camouflage ability?

If it did, then it was one heck of an ability, since he couldn’t see anything, and he had good eyes.

Aether took a deep breath, sitting down on the cold floor, near the gate, not moving an inch. There had to be something here, something with him, maybe even someone; it couldn’t just be an empty floor. He didn’t believe it.

He had lived in this place for a while, well, like two days now, but that was enough to get the gist of this world. There was no way the first floor of the place everyone is scared to enter was just this.

It was said that so many have failed to clear the trial; the old woman from the Inn had told him this. She also told him how many people have failed the first floor. So then they must have fallen in this trap, a trap of security and safety, they must have gone forward, and got killed by the monster that was so shamelessly hiding, or who knows, maybe because of something else.

Who knew what could be hiding here?

“An empty room hides more than one filled with spikes.”

And yet, we consider the former safer than the latter, even if the latter got all its tricks out, and all you have to do is avoid the spikes. An empty room can hide many dangerous traps inside it. Even more of this size, who knew how many little traps could be hiding with so much space?

And they probably weren’t any simple traps, after all, this was the Tides, they had to be some complicated and dangerous traps that you wouldn’t expect.

…

I mean, look at the shadows. They were doing the same thing; none dared to get across the room, since their masters had done it and they had died. But strangely enough, they didn’t give him an answer when he asked them what the trap was.

Really, he couldn’t wait for his ability get better, since when your class levels up, so do your abilities. Who knew, maybe in the future, he would be able to make them respond, and more importantly, tell him the truth.

He also heard that once you get to Harbinger, you can evolve one of your abilities, and you have the ability to choose. Well, not that he had any other ability, which was strange since he had gotten Shadow Speech at sync 9, and now that he had maxed it, he hadn’t gotten any. Like…

Either way, it wasn’t the time to mourn the fact that he hadn’t gotten a second ability as a reader, I mean, he was going to get one as a Seeker probably, but first he had to get to the real world… like had he made even a little progress with the story. I mean, The Trial of Salvation is a book without endings; it is endless. You are the main character, not just a random side character, unlike in most books. Even if you have the luck to be the main character, as in Frozen Crown.

You can take ten years; all you have to do is make an ending, and he clearly hasn’t done anything to work up to that. I mean, he had died in the first seconds of entering, and now he just wanted to get back to the start.

… He was less close to creating an ending than he was when he first joined.

’Just my luck i guess.’ He sighed as he rested his head in one of his hands. As he stared at the other side of the room.

…

Let’s say he did cross, and that there wasn’t any trap or monster, what then? There was nothing to get him up. So why would he risk it? He was just going to wait for the monster to come out.

’I have time.’

…

“I don’t.”

Aether sighed, frowning, as he turned his head to the Abyss.

“Look who decided to come out, what did you get bored, you haven’t been doing anything lately, didn’t you say that you would help me?”

Aether had expected the Abyss to get mad, to scream at him and get defensive, like he normally did, but he didn’t, he didnt even seem fazed by it.

“I mean, you didn’t seem to need it. You were doing well by yourself, and since we have the same knowledge about this place, i didnt bother.”

Aether blinked twice… this was weird, really, why was the Abyss acting like this… he didn’t like it one bit.

“So what, did you come to see my brilliance, so ask me how I’m so smart?”

The Abyss gritted his teeth as he scoffed.

“Don’t get so cock,y you brat, don’t forget what that confidence last did to you.”

The Abyss leaned close to his face, a mocking smile on his face. There it was, the Abyss he was used to. He was back, and he definitely didn’t disappoint, boldly blurring about the fall of his rebellion.

“Yeah? And whose fault is it? Who was the one who said they could beat Lilith and failed? Huh?”

The Abyss choked as he quickly got back in his previous position, clearing his throat.

“Either way… why haven’t you cleared this floor yet?”

Aether stared beweiledered, I mean, did a God really not see that this room was clearly a trap?

“And how would I do that?”

The Abyss pointed to the other side.

“Its quite simple, all you have to do is use this secret technique called walking to the other side. I know, you probably haven’t heard of it until now, but it’s quite useful.”

Aether scoffed, smiling at how wrong the Abyss was, an actual God, who knew they were this stupid. Were the other four this dumb, or did he get stuck with the worst one?

“This is the first floor of a Trial, a floor that many have failed, do you really think that just… getting to the other side is enough, do you think that is seriously possible without anything attacking you or falling into a trap?”

…

“That’s right.” The Abyss bluntly said.

Aether rolled his eyes.

“And why do you think that?” He turned his head to face the other side of the room, one of his ears was listening, and the other wasn’t paying the Abyss any attention.

“Everyone who has failed this trial has done the same thing as you.”

…

Aether’s eyes lit up, looking back at the Abyss.

“Only those who have the fire who survive this place can enter, only those who see the danger of the Tides, and are able to keep themselves sane, those without an anchor. So when they enter the first floor, they think that there has to be something here.

And they get anchored to that idea. Really its a wicked trick, but the first floor danger is yourself, your idea, and knowledge of the Tides. Those who have failed have not crossed because they thought that there had to be something.

They refused to believe it was this simple.”

…

Aether stared at the Abyss. “Denial…”

“Also, the shadows aren’t standing here because their masters were killed by something when trying to cross, but because they died out of insanity or something, insanity from waiting here. Why do you think they aren’t saying anything to you when they ask about what happened to them? They don’t know the answer, because there aren’t any traps.”

…

…

“Really, the first floor is just… an empty floor without anything inside. But because everyone who has entered knows about the nature of the Tides, they overthink it, which leads them to believe that there is something hidden, denying that it’s just this… Its genius… All you have to do is get to the other side… and yet our own doubt stops us.”

…

“I think it’s quite funny… how such a simple room can stop so many. I wonder, if you were to put someone without any knowledge inside this room, would they be able to do it? Probably.”

…

“So this room is designed to break the trust in ones belief and knowledge.”

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