Jae-hoon and the team continue down the hallways. Slowly, the torches in the hallway light up to light the way. Along the walls there's writings that defy the understanding of the human world. Even ancient Egyptian writings will be considered a joke in front of these writings.
Suddenly, the system pops up out of nowhere while Jae-hoon is looking at the writings.
[Translating writings…]
[Translation complete]
Jae-hoon sees the notification and reads the translated version of the writings that the system gave; "'A castle built by the Spectral Phantom race. This castle's sole purpose is to keep anything that enters it trapped for eternity. Whoever is trapped here needs to complete 5 trials. Trial of The Sun, Trial of The Phantom, Guardians of The Floating Castle, Trial of The Blaze and Trial of Spectral.' In other words, if we want to escape we need to clear all these trials? Is that how it is?"
Soo-won hears what Jae-hoon is saying and turns to him to ask; "You understand the writings, Lee?"
"Oh. Yeah. I do. Sure it's complicated but I understand it well. Like I said earlier, there are 5 trials that we need to clear. Once we cleared all of them, we're able to escape. Right now, we don't see any other way out other than jumping off from the side. But I bet that's too dangerous even for us Irregular Hunters. I'm sure we will end up dead once we get down," he replied.
Soo-won thinks for a while before speaking; "Well then. If that's what the castle wants us to do, we'll do it. It's our only way out, right?"
"Yeah," Jae-hoon replied.
"Good things that I didn't say it was the system's doing for the translation. Otherwise it will be really awkward and my secret will be revealed," he says in his mind, feeling relieved that he didn't tell anyone about how he understood the writings.
They walk deeper down the hallway and stop in front of a door that has more of the same writings as before. Jae-hoon reads the translated version that the system translated; "This door will lead to the first trial, Trial of The Sun. You will find out what your objective is once you enter. To enter, you need to chant the chant 'Zteck Gyoer Bunanme Jihoter Wadgas' and the door will open,"
Right after he finishes chanting the chant, the door creaks open and reveals a big room. They all enter the room and the door behind them closes.
Soo-won says as he looks around; "What is this room? Why are there so many different symbols? And the next door…. It has some sort of locks. Looks like a keypad. We need to figure out something here,"
Jae-hoon thinks for a while before speaking up; "Seems like a puzzle we need to figure out. The symbols are definitely one of the key things we need to figure out. Maybe there's something on the wall?"
He then walks up to the nearest walk and searches for anything and pressed a secret button that lights up one of the symbols.
"Found one. So there's many more of them hidden around here, I think. Let's split up and find them. Captain, you organize the team. I'll check what else we need to do," he says. Afterwards, he says to Soo-won to organize how the team will work to clear this trial.
"Alright then. Also, I'm surprised that you can even speak the language that these writings have, Lee. What else can you do?" he says, appraising Jae-hoon for his exceptional understanding of the writings.
"I just understand it, that's all… Hehe…." Jae-hoon replied, trying not to sound suspicious. He then continues; "Anyway, let's get going. We need to get out of here soon. We don't know what's lurking in here. Plus, we don't even know if there's any traps or no,"
In his mind; "Wah! That's close! If I said the wrong thing there, I would've gotten caught."
Soo-won nods, agreeing with Jae-hoon that they should get back to finishing the first trial. Soo-won went ahead and helps the other members who's searching for the hidden buttons
Meanwhile everyone is doing their own thing, Jae-hoon stands in the middle while looking at the system. In his mind he says; "I haven't leveled up yet since we entered this castle. Plus there's no traps at all. It seems sketchy but trustworthy…. I have no idea which one it is. But this quest is weird…. It has no information on it,"
[Quest: Trials of The Spectral Phantom's Castle]
[Rank:???]
[Description:???]
[Objective: clears all 5 trials]
[Progress:0/5]
[Rewards: 150 gold, 25 stat points & 12,500 exp]
"The trials are considered as quests instead of just stuff this dungeon has. Well, it is weird to see a castle that was meant to trap anything in here trapped for eternity in a field type dungeon. Especially a desert. I didn't even receive any quest when I entered the dungeon but when we first stepped in this room, I got this quest. At least the rewards are good. 25 stat points. That's equivalent to me leveling up 5 times plus the 12,500 exp will level me up more. That's a win-win situation," he thinks for a while.
He then slaps both of his cheeks to make him focus on the trial back. "Focus, Jae-hoon! There's still 5 more trials to clear! Focus! Focus!"
As he finishes lecturing himself, everyone else has finished finding all the hidden buttons and all the symbols light up. Jae-hoon looks around and counts how many symbols there are.
"There are eight symbols in total. There are four empty spaces in the padlock for the next door. We need to figure out something," he says.
Soo-won finds something on the ground and it seems like a stone tablet. He picks it up and brings it over to Jae-hoon. "Hey, Lee. Mind if you check this out. It seems like this will be useful."
"Hmm? A stone tablet? Let me take a look at that," he says as he takes the stone tablet from Soo-won.
He then wipes off the sand that's covering the stone tablet. After he finishes clearing the sand that's covering the stone tablet, he reads it and it seems like more writings. The system translates it for him.
"Let's see…. 'Where the sun meets the ocean, there lies a dragon. Where the moon meets the earth, there lies the serpent. Where the mountains meet the cloud, there lies the bear. Where the rain that falls in the desert, there lies the shark.' All of them sound absurd but…. Well whatever. Let's see....", Jae-hoon reads the stone tablet. After he finishes, he puts down the stone tablet on the ground and looks at the symbols again.
"Eight symbols…. Let's see what symbols are there. Sunset…. The moon between the forest, mountain covered with clouds and rain that falls down in the desert. That's four. Let's see…. There's the serpent, dragon, shark and bear. Does that mean we need to do something here?" He says, confused about what's going on.
"Ah! I understand it now! We need to line up the symbols just like it said in the stone tablet!" Jae-hoon says as he finds out what they need to do next.
Soo-won heard what Jae-hoon said and said; "You're a genius, Lee. You're much more intelligent than any of us here. You can understand otherworldly writings and figure out what we need to do in the trial very quickly. You're really a useful asset for the team, Lee,"
"No. This much is nothing. I'm just a newbie here. Anyways, I'll go to the padlock and unlock the door," Jae-hoon says. He then walks over to the padlock to finish the first trial.
Jaehoon lines up the first part of the padlock which is the sunset, the moon between the forest, a mountain covered with clouds and rain that falls down in the desert. The padlock then changes the orders and he then puts the next order. The dragon, serpent, bear and shark and the door unlocked and it reveals the next room for the next trial which is Trial of The Phantom