Chapter 568: Everything Is Going Great

The constant kill notifications and the thunderous footsteps of the giants did little to help Thalion concentrate on disarming the traps and opening a window.

Thankfully, he had spent an entire year in the Golden Palace, giving him a basic understanding of how runes worked. Had the giants' runes been any more complex, he wouldn't have stood a chance of disarming them. Fortunately, they were crude enough that he actually made steady progress. Within a few minutes, he had successfully dispelled the runes sealing the window.

"Come. It's time to go," Thalion said to his two new companions, who suddenly seemed far less eager to leave the safety of the roof.

"Why now? Can't we wait a little longer?" the insectoid woman asked.

"No. We have to move now. If you don't want to come, you're free to stay."

It was almost amusing. All it had taken was a family of invulnerable, murderous giants for the elite of the new multiverse to completely forget their arrogance.

"Fine," the woman growled.

The three of them climbed down from the roof and carefully approached the children's room through the same window Thalion had escaped from earlier.

"I only opened the window a tiny bit from the inside," Thalion whispered. "We need to slip in without being noticed, and if possible, without opening it any wider than necessary. The giants in the garden are currently busy searching the flowerbeds, but there's no reason to take unnecessary risks."

His companions nodded.

Activating Scarlet Maelstrom, Thalion shot downward and slipped through the narrow opening. The increased pressure made controlling the skill far more difficult than usual.

The insectoid woman didn't fly at all. Instead, she effortlessly ran down the wall. The other man transformed into a cloud of stone dust, remarkably similar to Thalion's Scarlet Maelstrom.

They entered the room not a second too soon.

Below them, several doors burst open as more giants charged into the garden, their murderous intent and overwhelming auras washing across the entire area.

Thalion was extremely glad he was no longer sitting on the roof.

"By the Mother... that was close," the man whispered.

Together, he and Thalion carefully pushed the window shut again. It had never been open more than a narrow crack, but there was no point taking chances.

"Alright. What's next?"

"You begin digging the tunnels while I continue disarming the traps," Thalion explained. "Start by connecting the rooms on either side of us. One of you goes left, the other right. I'll scout ahead with my skill and disable the traps so you won't have to stop. If everything goes according to plan, you should both be back in about an hour. That will leave us with some time to deal with the giants' stew."

Satisfied with the plan, the two nodded.

Thalion climbed behind one of the bedposts and sat down. The vines of the Primordial Bloodseed quickly wrapped around him as he activated the Specter of the Eternal Dream once more.

The specter glided effortlessly through the walls. Now that Thalion had grown familiar with the giants' runic traps, he was able to dismantle them much more efficiently. In less than half an hour, he had already neutralized most of the runes on the first floor.

To his surprise, his two companions were making excellent progress as well.

"The walls separating the rooms are much thinner than the outer walls," the man reported with a quiet grin. "I can get through each one in about ten minutes. It only takes that long because we have to stay silent."

Even as he spoke, he made sure to keep his voice barely above a whisper.

Thalion found it mildly annoying that he still didn't know either of their names, but perhaps it was better that way.

There was always a chance they would find themselves on opposite sides in one of the coming games.

"Very good. With the extra time, can you dig another set of tunnels? If we only have one network, the giants might be able to block it too quickly," Thalion suggested.

"Agreed. I'll start a second route from behind the left bedpost," the woman replied with a nod.

"What are the giants doing downstairs?" the man asked.

Thalion simply shook his head. He hadn't checked on them yet, but judging by the constant notifications, the giants were making excellent progress.

125 trial takers have been slain by the giants

The giants gain increased agility and perception until the end of the trial

A new buff will be granted every fifty kills

Thalion barely held back a curse.

The author publishes this chapter on the NovelPhoenix site, while this page shows a reproduction made without permission.

This first game was already absurdly difficult. He didn't even want to imagine what awaited them in the following rounds.

It was time to find out what was happening downstairs.

The Specter of the Eternal Dream slipped through the floor until it emerged from the ceiling of the living room. Staying close to the ceiling, Thalion cautiously drifted toward the kitchen. Thankfully, the increased pressure had no effect whatsoever on the specter, allowing it to move just as freely as before.

Every window and door appeared to be closed.

Inside the kitchen, a single giant continued tending the stew.

Using Blood Vision, Thalion couldn't detect anyone else nearby.

While disarming the traps, he had been thinking about how to deal with the potion. The cauldron was enormous, and with the giant standing right beside it, he doubted he could tip it over without being noticed.

If only the water elemental were still alive.

It could have simply bent the liquid out of the pot.

Besides spilling the stew, another option would be to add different ingredients to it. The problem was that he had absolutely no idea what any of them did. The giants certainly weren't cooking with salt and pepper.

Behind the cooking area stood a large wooden shelf lined with dozens of glass jars. One contained a collection of eyes floating in a murky green liquid. Others held severed limbs, organs, and things Thalion couldn't even identify.

The ingredients were almost as disturbing as the giant itself.

The giant seemed permanently enraged. Even while calmly stirring the stew, it constantly huffed through its nose, reminding Thalion of a furious bull moments before a charge.

Besides tampering with the ingredients, Thalion could also add his own blood.

Hidden within the crimson stew, it wouldn't even be noticeable.

Unfortunately, he doubted his curse would affect the giants while they remained invulnerable. The odds were simply too low.

That left one final option.

He could absorb all the blood from the slain trial takers that had already been mixed into the stew.

The giants would definitely lose a crucial ingredient, and unlike smashing the cauldron, they might simply believe something had gone wrong with the brewing process. Even if they realized what had happened, replacing that much blood would require killing many more trial takers.

Stealing the blood was by far the better choice.

There was just one problem.

The giant refused to leave the cauldron.

Thalion needed a distraction.

The giant continued snorting heavily through its nose, sounding more and more like an enraged bull.

It was unlikely that anything happening outside would convince it to abandon the stew.

That meant Thalion would have to trigger one of the traps himself.

He slipped through the kitchen wall until he located a runic trap engraved onto the closed door on the opposite side of the room.

A single Mana Spear pierced the center of the rune.

The trap detonated instantly.

A shrill siren echoed throughout the house.

Thalion had barely retreated back into the wall before the door was thrown open and the giant charged out, bloodlust blazing in its crimson eyes.

Now.

The specter shot out of the opposite wall beside the shelf.

With a single activation of Sacrament of the Blooded Templar, every drop of blood inside the cauldron was ripped from the stew and absorbed into the specter.

An instant later, it was transferred directly into the Primordial Bloodseed.

The ancient plant radiated pure delight.

Normally, Thalion would have dismissed the specter immediately after using the skill.

Not this time.

He wanted to see the giant's reaction first.

The specter retreated partly back into the wall, drifting upward until it reached the point where the wall met the ceiling in the corner of the kitchen.

Only moments later, the giant returned, huffing with obvious annoyance.

Without noticing anything unusual, the giant tossed a handful of what looked like frog legs into the cauldron and continued stirring the stew with a massive wooden spoon.

Even when the entire mixture changed from crimson red to a sickly yellow, the giant didn't seem to notice.

Perplexed but pleased, Thalion continued observing the giant for another minute. It genuinely appeared oblivious to the fact that the stew had completely changed.

Satisfied, he guided the specter through the rest of the house, searching for survivors while continuing to dismantle the giants' traps. The five runes hidden inside the chimney, in particular, were carefully disabled one after another.

Eventually, he descended into the cellar.

Several trial takers had managed to survive by hiding inside the carcasses of the giant beasts hanging from the ceiling.

"Hey, you can come out," Thalion called, this time raising his voice. "There's only one giant left upstairs in the kitchen. We're currently creating a network of tunnels throughout the house."

"If a few of you can dig your way upward, all of us will be much safer. The walls aren't invulnerable like the giants are, and with a few hours of work, you should be able to finish before they return."

"You all saw the notification about the stew they're brewing. The giants are only waiting for it to finish before they come down here to wipe out everyone left in the cellar."

"The staircase is trapped, which means the tunnels are your only reliable escape route."

Thalion doubted the giant in the kitchen could hear him from this distance.

Even in the unlikely event that it somehow did, his real body was safely hidden upstairs on the first floor rather than in the cellar.

Either way, he wasn't taking much of a risk.

The mighty chosen, however, continued cowering inside the hanging carcasses without responding.

With little else he could do, Thalion dismissed the Specter of the Eternal Dream.

Hopefully, he had manipulated them enough to encourage them to help expand the tunnel network.

There were still several hours remaining in the trial, and the giants would undoubtedly search every room again before it ended. By then, the tunnels could become the only thing keeping everyone alive.

They would also make the trial takers' movements far less predictable.

When Thalion opened his eyes, the other two were already sitting beside him, waiting.

"Why are you smiling like that?" the man asked, raising an eyebrow. Judging by the constant kill notifications, he clearly wasn't expecting good news.

"Because I got rid of the giants' stew," Thalion replied with a wide grin. "And the idiot cooking it didn't even notice."

"It takes two hours to brew from scratch. They'll need to kill more trial takers before they can even attempt another batch, and the longer it takes them to realize something is wrong, the more time we'll have."

The grin immediately spread to his two companions.

"That is good news," the man said.

"This alone might be enough for us to survive."

The insectoid woman nodded enthusiastically.

"Shouldn't we bury ourselves inside the tunnels now? We don't even have to connect them to the outside. We could simply stay hidden inside the walls until the game ends. Without the stew, they'll never find us."

Before Thalion could reply that it was actually an excellent idea, a deafening crash echoed from outside.

All three instinctively looked upward.

A gigantic ladder had been slammed against the side of the house.

Three more thunderous impacts followed as additional ladders struck the walls.

Moments later, the entire house began to tremble beneath the heavy footsteps of giants climbing toward the roof.

"They've been sitting on their asses up there this whole time while we were working," the insectoid woman hissed. "I say we close the window before they lead the giants straight to us."

Thalion had to admit she had a point.

"You know what? I think we should do exactly that."

Without another word, all three hurried toward the window.