Trial of Fear

After I entered the door, I found myself again in another place. This time I was in what looked like an empty meadow. However, all I could see was green grass.

Nothing lived there; there were no trees or rocks either. There was a blue sky without clouds, but what was strange was that there was no sun. Even without the sun, there was light, and I could see perfectly.

"So this is what it looks like in minecra*t l when you choose terrain as flat."

Since nothing was happening, I lay down on the grass and closed my eyes.

In the second trial, I gained a lot of useful information.

The first and most important thing i confirmed was that this is reality and I really am in a world similar to the game.

I could ask Angel-Kun about it, but there was a chance that most people in this world weren't aware of it, which would mean I'd win my second trial the moment I asked.

I also found the locations of a few villains and characters from the game. I didn't have much information about them, so this spared me some trouble.

I confirmed that the reward from this dungeon is the same. I was worried that the reward would change like some of the trial, but that doesn't seem to be the case if Angel-Kun didn't lie to me.

I was also a bit curious about my illness, so I asked, and what I found out really surprised me..

"Curse..."

Furthermore, it wasn't a typical curse. The strongest poison in the planet was the source of the curse.

From the monster, which had the power to topple whole nations.

Strong enough to alter the ecosystem of an entire forest with them just living there. A being whose poison is so potent that it can destroy the soul.

"How did the fucking king get his hands on Hydra's posion!"

A person doesn't need to be genius to know what happened to me. To the Duke of the family, powerful enough to rival the Royal family, was born a son.

The best way to screw such a powerful family over? Deal with the problem before it can grow or attack its weak spot..

Most of the time, nobles sync their children's births with those of other powerful families so that there isn't a large age gap and they can strengthen their ties with others through marriage, friendship, or even comparing their children among themselves to strengthen their position in noble society.

They can show up and brag about how the future of their household is promising thanks to their talented children and other nonsensical bullhsit.

The same thing happened to me.

My birth was planned so I would be the same age as another children of another powerful figures. But what if someone made it so that the child of a powerful family ended up with an unknown disease? Their reputation and standing in noble society would drop.For nobles, their children are a representation of their entire family.

If they fail to raise their children properly or fail to take care of their safety, their reputation will hit rock bottom.It will make their household look incapable.

Yes, it is something that could be taken care of if Duke wasn't such a kind person.

Maybe he looks like a gorilla with that muscled body of his, that is sweaty and smells from training all the time, and as a bonus, he is a fucking battle maniac. But even with all that, Duke is a kind person who loves his family, and people know that.

Kindness is fatal for nobles. It's an unnecessary emotion. It was his weakness, and because of that, they used it against him.

They poisoned me with an amount that wouldn't kill me right away, but it would be still incurable.

In the best scenario, the dukedom would end up without an heir or the heir would be born much later than the children of other families, which would give them adventage.

At first, I thought that the culprint was the Rosedrake family.

There are only 2 dukedoms in the Kingdom of Malphas.

The strongest noble household in the kingdom is the Dukedom of Astrape. We are a military family, and every Duke in history was at least a swordmaster.

We have more wealth than some smaller countries on the continent. The military force is called the sword of our kingdom and can anilhilate any enemy. It is rumored that we have been blessed by a mythical being. We have special bloodline magic that grants us different unique abilities that could be called godly.

Even though it is more like a gatcha, but whatever.

Second is the Rosedrake dukedom. They are a family of magicians and geniuses. Their role is to create a barrier around the royal capital and kingdom.

If Astrape is the sword of the kingdom, then Rosedrake is the shield that protects the kingdom from any harm.They have their own magic tower, where they research all kinds of spells, from destructive ones that can anilhilate armies of invaders to the cures that can help in the case of pleagues.

There were cases when deadly illnesses that destroyed a few kingdoms in the past started spreading, yet they were able to find a cure, saving millions of lives in the process.

They have a few big companies in the capital that are selling all kinds of medicine and magic scrolls to the popular cosmetics industry across the whole continent.

Of course, they have their own darkness, but that is something I will take care of later.

One of the mother fucking love interests is the son of a branch family that was adopted to the main since Duke had..let's say, a different taste in his sexual partners than normal people.

But I will take care of that perverted mother fucker later.

The important thing is that the main suspects, the Rosedrake family, are innocent, contrary to my suspicions.

The one who used poison on me was a king.

The question is, why would anyone want to weaken their own kingdom?

Unless he was stupid, the king would be able to anticipate the possibility where the Astrape family would fall and the kingdom would lose its sword.

If the kingdom lost Astrape that have their bloodline ability that can sometimes be powerful enough to change the flow of any battle, it would end up in disadventage since there are many powerhouses on the continent.

[Trial of Fear will start after 10 minutes]

Pov. Third-Person

When orion was thinking about information he learned from the guardian of the second floor he heard gentle voice in his head speaking

[Trial of Fear will start after 10 minutes]

"Oya, this is a new one~" Orion spoke with delight.

He looked happy as a kid when he heard the voice of a woman speaking in his head because he felt like one of those protagonists with a system.

"It seems like my little break is over. I'm curious how the third trial will change from the original~"

After waiting for 10 minutes, he got up from the ground and observed any changes happening.

The third trial in the game was Test, where the protagonist has to fight her trauma.

In her case, countless demons appeared, and she had to fight them and overcome her fear of them.

It was something you couldn't prepare for unless you knew what your biggest fear was. For Orion, there were too many things that he was scared of in the past that made it impossible to prepare with the time he had.

"Hm, 10 minutes have already passed but nothing is happening." "Are the gods that la-" Before Orion could finish, a huge explosion of golden light blinded him.

He jumped to the ground because of the pain in his eyes caused by the light from the explosion. He felt like he was staring right into the sun.

Even though his eyes were closed, Orion noticed a change in the terrain on which he was standing.

When he was finally able to open his eyes, he saw new scenery before him.

He was now in front of the mansion he grew up in. Instead of a warm home, he now faced a collapsed, burning ruin.

The whole mansion was burned to the ground. The walls were demolished.

He could see burned furniture and what was left of portraits of his ancestors.

"So it was like this...what Orion feared the most."he said, as if he was talking about someone else.

He started walking to the center of the ruin, where he found the corpses of his parents.

His mother was burned to the crips. Meat and her skin melted together on her skeleton, creating a grotesque figure. Only her blue eyes were intact.

His father was next to her, holding her hand with a multiple sword stabbed in his chest. He looked like a reversed hedgehog.

It was a scene that would make anyone go crazy and scream.

The odor of burned meat was in the air.

A stream of blood formed a small river. It was the blood of his servants, family, the blood of all the people that raised him with love.

"I'm glad it was not an abyss," yet the orion just faintly smiled.

His eyes were cold without any hint of sympathy towards his death parents.

If this was Orion from the game. He would probably faint with trauma.It would make this trial worthy of the title "Trial Made by Gods".

But Orion was no longer a naive boy who yearns for the love of his parents.

"I think this is enough..." Orion said in a faint voice, standing in the center of the ruin, surrounded by the corpses of people dear to him.

"Dalia"

The moment he said that name. The space around him slowly cracked like broken glass.

CRACK! CRACK!

The space shattered and revealed white space.

Orion was standing unfazed, looking at three beings that were sitting in front of him on white thrones.