Chapter 16 The Belated Ivyst

Pressed the wrong button?!

Lynn felt terrible as the seat plummeted.

Fortunately, the height here didn't seem as tall as he had imagined, only about the equivalent of three to four floors, and there was a seat underneath to cushion his fall.

Moreover, after falling to the bottom, he discovered a layer of accumulation water.

In any case, his life wasn't in danger.

He let out a slight sigh of relief.

At the same time, he repeated the second lie in his mind, reinforcing the psychological suggestion using the power of the Lie Swallowing.

The sensation of falling almost made him break out of this state.

Once he finally reverted to his original dazed condition, Lynn shifted his attention back to what was in front of him.

Unlike the brightly-lit laboratory from before,

the scene in front of him was pitch dark, with only two dazzling golden lanterns hanging high above.

Yet, for some reason, although the lanterns seemed bright, they did not illuminate the surrounding environment.

Thankfully, some faint light coming from above prevented Lynn from being left in complete darkness.

This was utterly an undeserved disaster.

He had already passed the assessment, yet he accidentally fell into such a place.

Indeed, Ivyst's subordinates were a group of people who were unreliable and prone to failure.

They had countless opportunities to kill all the main characters from the original story in the early and middle phases but ended up letting them escape due to various situations.

In the end, when the grand finale arrived, and the main characters nearly all became gods, those fools finally panicked, realizing catastrophe was upon them, and faced a dire reckoning.

Lynn grumbled internally and quietly waited for them to find someone to rescue him.

But after waiting several minutes, nothing happened.

Not only that, Lynn faintly sensed a fishy smell and a barely perceptible hot wind.

Maintaining a sluggish state, he shifted his eyeballs and glanced upward.

Those two golden lanterns flickered on and off.

They lit up at times and went out at others.

Moreover, they seemed to be moving uncertainly towards him, gradually getting closer.

...Wait, wait a second!

It was as if Lynn finally realized something.

At this very moment, gazing up at those two enormous "lanterns," Lynn broke into a cold sweat, nearly breaking free from the false hypnosis state created by the Lie Swallowing.

Those weren't any damn lanterns at all but the pupils of some giant creature!

From the moment he had fallen, it had been sizing him up!

Suddenly, there was movement in front of Lynn by the giant creature.

Accompanied by a deep roar reminiscent of thunder, the giant creature slowly lowered its head, drawing close to Lynn's face.

With the help of the light from the opening above, Lynn finally saw the true form of the giant creature.

A neck like that of a massive serpent, a mouth bristling with sharp fangs, colossal wings that obscured the sky, a slender tail dragging chains, and...thick scale armor covering its entire body.

This was unmistakably a juvenile Black Dragon towering over ten meters tall!!!

...

"Your Highness, you've arrived?"

As the statuesque figure appeared in the laboratory, Milani approached with a narrowed-eye smile.

Ivyst, who had been wearing a smart military uniform moments ago, now wore a flowing black fringed gown, and her long, dark hair, which had been cascading down her back, was now tied up into a neat and efficient ponytail that hung at her waist.

She looked like an aloof goddess ready to grace a banquet, untouchable in her elegance.

"How is he doing?"

When facing Milani, Ivyst seemed to relax a great deal.

She trusted this subordinate who had followed her for seven or eight years implicitly, treating her like a sister in their day-to-day interactions.

But although Milani appeared quite young, she had already reached adulthood.

It was just that due to certain reasons, her body had never been able to grow normally.

Ivyst ran her hand over the girl's head, smoothing out her messy brown hair.

Without resisting, Milani placed an apparatus carved from a Magic Stone in front of Ivyst and infused it with a little Extraordinary Ability.

Moments later, a projection appeared before them.

The image within the projection was Lynn, trapped in the space below, sitting absurdly still on a chair, motionless.

"This is the last assessment. Of the 125 specimens before this, most died at this stage."

"If he truly passes this test, then he will be utterly under Your Highness's control. He'll be unaware on ordinary days, but as soon as he sees the Curse Mark of the Eye of the Soul, he'll immediately switch to a hypnotic state."

Milani's eyes were calm and cold now, nothing like her previously playful demeanor with Lynn.

Ivyst nodded.

If Lynn was actually pretending to be hypnotized, she would still intervene to save him.

But she would be somewhat disappointed.

...

At this very moment, the Black Dragon's eyes, as large as wheels and golden in color, drew close to his face, exhaling hot, stinking breath from its nostrils, seemingly assessing its meal for the day.

Feeling the breath rush towards him, Lynn's heart felt like it was about to leap out of his throat.

The physiological reaction was unavoidable because he was facing a dragon.

Being a dragon, possessing mighty and ancient noble blood, naturally came with an extremely powerful dragon's presence.

Even though this Black Dragon was just a juvenile, it was still beyond a Fourth Rank human.

Under the effect of the dragon's presence, any pretense would easily shatter.

Feeling the precarious state of the Lie Swallowing, Lynn sensed he might lose his composure in the next second, gasping for air loudly and desperate to flee.

After all, he was just an ordinary person without the Divine-given factor, and the distance between him and the dragon was less than one meter.

The sharp teeth in the Black Dragon's mouth shimmered with a cold light, and there were even remnants of blood on them.

It seemed to be extremely hungry.

Lynn wanted to take a deep breath to calm himself down.

But logically, one shouldn't have such abnormalities when under hypnosis.

Damn Milani, how could she not have found someone to come over yet?

Didn't she know how terrifying the creature below was?

Wrong!

Thinking this, Lynn seemed to suddenly realize something.

Did she really press the wrong button by accident?

Or was this whole thing another assessment from the beginning?

Looking at the giant dragon in front of him gradually opening its mouth, and the saliva dripping from its lips, he fell silent.

Lynn only had two paths before him.

The first path was to break the state and call for help loudly.

Someone might come to save him by doing so, but the chances were slim.

After all, calling for help, apart from exposing his disguised behavior, wouldn't put a speed buff on Milani and those guards.

The second path was to maintain his current state and fight to the death.

There was no benefit, just gambling that this was another test.

The bet was his own life.

Both paths were fraught with peril, and the probability of death was high either way.

But for Lynn, the choice never seemed to need hesitation.

If he chose the first path, besides showing the ugly side of the struggle to survive, he would probably still die.

Therefore, he chose the second.

The reason was simple.

At such a critical and tense moment, Lynn remembered what Milani had said before.

Ivyst had said she would spare his life.

Although he didn't know what kind of mental journey she had been through, she had said it herself, she wouldn't let him die.

No matter the purpose, Lynn chose to trust her.

He trusted she could fulfill her promise.

So at this moment, Lynn exerted all his strength to activate the Lie Swallowing ability and lied to himself, maintaining the foolish and dull hypnotized state.

Even so, under the pressure of the dragon's might, his mental will was faltering.

"Roar——!!!"

Seemingly sensing that this time's food was lacking in spirit, a flicker of dissatisfaction flashed in the Black Dragon's eyes, followed by a roar as it raised its head.

Feeling the trembling from his soul, and the dizziness gradually approaching, Lynn really wanted to make a snide remark.

In just one night, he was about to faint three times over.

Looking at the gaping maw drawing closer, Lynn's heart was almost in his throat.

The foul stench from the dragon's mouth nearly made him pass out.

Bush, Gomen!

At the critical moment, accompanied by the sound of cutting wind, a blindingly bright red light suddenly flashed!

"Bang!!!"

With the shockwave spreading in all directions, the Black Dragon let out a pained howl, its massive body falling backward with powerful inertia!

The next second, the familiar scent of roses once again enveloped Lynn's nose.

A familiar and stunning figure hovered in the air, her pitch-black dress fluttering gently like a flag.

I knew it!

Seeing that figure, Lynn's body nearly collapsed, and he let out a sigh of relief.

The woman who had almost taken his life just moments ago now looked surprisingly pleasing to the eye.

At the same time, he was extremely grateful that he hadn't chosen the first path.

In his discreet gaze, Ivyst raised her right hand with her fingers spread, as if issuing a command to the Black Dragon in front of her.

"Retreat!"

Her voice, accompanied by invisible ripples, spread out, traveling along the Black Dragon's thick scale armor into its mind.

The once haughty Black Dragon now appeared docile, a flicker of fear crossing its golden pupils.

Then, just as she said, it really did crawl back into the darkness.

Even a giant dragon had to humble itself in the presence of the villainous Imperial Princess.

Just like an obedient little dog.

Having done this, Ivyst gently lowered her hand and turned to look at Lynn in the seat.

A flicker of complex emotions passed through her eyes.

"Find him a room in the manor, let him have a good sleep; after he wakes up, bring him to me."

After leaving these words, Ivyst's figure disappeared abruptly.

A dozen seconds later, the guards arrived belatedly.

At the sight, Lynn completely relaxed his consciousness.

He knew he had temporarily survived this close brush with death and could finally get some rest.

With this thought, a wave of intense sleepiness surged over him like a tide.

He hadn't had a proper sleep in half a month, and after so much upheaval that night, he couldn't hold on any longer.

Of course, in the last second before he fell into a deep sleep, another image surfaced in his mind.

When Ivyst arrived, due to the angle, he seemed to see something he shouldn't have.

Purple, huh?

That really is... tsk tsk.

With these thoughts, Lynn drifted off into a deep sleep.