Chapter 234

Chapter 232 – Mirror Scroll

Except for very rare exceptions, the basic principle of game level design is to make items or materials with good performance harder to obtain.

For example, the Wingless Nightmare, which is perfectly designed to test the limits of human blood pressure while completing a quest.

The Ancient Scroll series was no exception.

If you were to point out the most notable feature of the ‘Mirror Scroll’ found in this dungeon, it would be the maze designed like a mirror, along with all sorts of mirror traps arranged within that maze.

And it culminates with the ultimate scam that gives a nice whack to the back of the player’s head upon entering for the first time.

“A trap? What do you mean, kid?”

“If you take a closer look at that floating thing, you’ll understand. I can’t see it, but surely Lord Minerva can observe it well.”

At my words, Minerva and Parnari’s gazes fixed on the scroll floating on the dungeon ceiling. Nix was still busy hugging my waist and rubbing her face against me.

By the way, it looks like it’s floating in the air at first glance, but it’s actually placed on a transparent ledge. You can figure that out if you manage to traverse all the way through the maze below.

After examining the scroll for a while, Minerva spoke in a slightly subdued voice.

“…It’s Illusion Magic.”

Instantly, her face regained calmness but then turned serene as if mixed with a bit of anger. It seemed she was upset about the scroll playing tricks on her.

“If what’s up there is an illusion, then where’s the real one?”

“Right next to it.”

“Next to it?”

Minerva looked puzzled. I turned with my three companions toward the side of the dungeon entrance. It looked like there was nothing but a sheer cliff.

At first glance, that was the case. Just at first glance.

On the closest wall to the entrance, there was a recessed space. The position of the recessed space was about 6-7 times my height.

If you didn’t purposely look up for a long time, you wouldn’t notice it at all. It looked like an empty cliff, so there was no reason to glance over there.

“The real scroll is hidden there.”

Players who first entered here were usually busy memorizing the maze structure by approaching the cliff in front of them.

If there’s an item on the ceiling and a maze unfolds in the center of the dungeon, they would only think that the way to obtain the item is to navigate through the maze logically.

Moreover, due to the height of the recessed space, without installing a separate mod, the vanilla FOV and camera structure wouldn’t reveal the space above even if you moved right up until you were about to fall from the cliff.

The object at the edge of the cliff restricted the camera’s movement.

Here, designed so cleverly to remain outside the third-person perspective, players wouldn’t be able to find the recessed space above while they were near the cliff at the entrance.

“…There’s something in front.”

While examining the recessed space, Minerva lightly tapped the floor with her staff. Then, blue mana descended like snowflakes, stacking neatly in the empty air.

Like snow piling up, the mana built up, revealing the outline of the transparent slope.

This slope clung closely to the wall, and its width was barely enough for one person to ascend, making it hard to notice unless one rubbed against the wall.

This structure was to prevent players from accidentally stumbling upon the slope while wandering about.

Thanks to this design, players would only realize they were scammed after they managed to reach the scroll at the top by enduring the mirror maze and traps, and it would light up, revealing a shortcut to the entrance and the appearance of the transparent slope.

‘Vicious things.’

Well, so once you’ve been scammed, you can just climb up the transparent slope to grab the scroll without needing to navigate through the maze anymore, making it overwhelmingly convenient.

And true to the developers of Brightest Darkness, they do give you a chance to notice this as well. If you turn the camera backward midway down the path leading to the maze, the recessed space will be visible.

Most people see it and just walk past it, though.

“You’re amazing. You know about that too?”

Parnari looked quite surprised.

Minerva, who had seen me do this more than once, was too absorbed in the scroll in front of her to pay any attention, while Nix was still busy satisfying her own desires.

“It’s a bit awkward to explain; you just get used to it. If we meet again, you might see this side of me many times.”

“Get used to it, how?”

Just as Parnari tilted her head and was about to ask something further, Minerva staggered like a bewildered person, walking between us and causing our eyes to widen.

The fact that there was something above meant, conversely, that there was an Ancient Scroll right in front of them. This meant Minerva was on the verge of losing her grip on reality.

“Skeantia? What’s wrong?”

Minerva completely ignored Parnari’s question and stepped into the empty air. Her sandaled foot stepped on nothingness.

She wasn’t stepping on the transparent slope. She was genuinely stepping upwards on empty air.

I had seen similar symptoms when she discovered the Crystal Scroll, so I just let it slide, but it seemed Parnari couldn’t handle it. The bewilderment showed on her face.

Minerva’s back disappeared inside the recessed space. Parnari’s wide, trembling eyes were staring after her.

“Parnari.”

“…Yes.”

Seemingly still in shock, her reply was delayed.

“I’m sorry to say this right after you join as my assistant, but for a while, you might not be able to meet Lord Minerva.”

“You can’t meet Skeantia? Why?”

“What’s in there is something Lord Minerva has long desired. I will be researching it.”

“Hmm… How long do I have to wait? A hundred years? Two hundred years?”

“…Not that long. At most, maybe a month?”

Parnari tilted her head.

“A month is too short. You said it’s something she’s longed for. At the very least, it should take fifty years.”

“….”

Given that she was a dragon potentially looking at four to five-digit lifespans in terms of age, her sense of time was evidently vastly different from ours.

Surely that’s why she accepted the 300 years of serving under Minerva, who was practically a graduate student, so calmly.

Leaving Parnari, who had a really puzzling expression, I looked down at Nix, still clinging to my waist. Feeling my gaze, Nix peeked her face up. A gloomy smile returned.

“Hehe, what’s up?”

“I just have one request. Can you teach me some dark magic later?”

A question rose above that head.

“But I’ve already taught you dark magic, haven’t I?”

“I want to learn more than just ash. It doesn’t matter if it’s offensive or defensive; I want to learn all kinds of it that you can teach me. Why? Is that not okay?”

“No, it’s not that I can’t teach you… it’s more like it’s an illusion… Hehe.”

Nix chuckled shyly, stealing a glance at my reaction.

“Last time, I said one was enough, so… Ah, I’m not blaming you at all. I’m just curious…”

“Things have changed since then. I think I can now properly use dark magic, so I want to learn.”

From her reaction, it seemed that Nix didn’t sense my magical power had explosively increased, just like Minerva’s.

“Hehe. Got it.”

Nix nodded her head repeatedly. I patted her head, and she buried her face back into my embrace with a giggle.

Somehow, I felt like I heard a rumbling sound from somewhere.

“Aaaah…!”

A voice filled with deep joy echoed out. Parnari flinched, but upon realizing it was Minerva’s voice, she returned to her original demeanor.

“Just now, was that Skeantia?”

“Who else could it be?”

Having experienced this before, I answered calmly, but Parnari’s eyes reflected disbelief, shattering that thought as Minerva slowly walked out.

Overall, she looked quite similar to last time. Spellbound eyes, gaping mouth, trembling body, arms hugging the scroll tightly.

Seeing that, Parnari froze on the spot.

“Skeantia… what’s wrong?”

“This is a normal state. Just accept it.”

“Normal? That? Humans are weird…”

Just like that, Parnari was convinced that humans themselves were strange. I comforted her. To be honest, I couldn’t argue; wizards who found Ancient Scrolls are indeed a bit odd from my perspective as well.

Minerva was staggering toward us. Just like the name Mirror Scroll, the surface of the scroll she held mirrored the surrounding scenery.

“Lady Minerva.”

With a nod, Minerva responded instead of answering.

“You and Parnari should head back to the Mage Tower first. I need to stay here for a while with Nix.”

“……”

Nod.

“It won’t take long. If anyone asks where I went, just tell them that.”

“……”

Nod.

“And, once I finish deciphering the scroll, I hope you’ll teach me some magic too.”

“……?”

Nod?

Minerva instinctively tried to nod but paused for a moment, and vitality slowly returned to her silvery-white pupils.

“Kid, what did you just say…?”

“I asked you to teach me some magic later. Since I have magic now, shouldn’t I use it properly?”

Minerva, who had been momentarily dazed, nodded with a smile.

“Leave it to me, kid.”

What, so is this what brings her back to her senses? While I was surprised on the inside, the human and dragon exited the dungeon. Once it was just the two of us, Nix slipped away silently.

It seemed like she was doing so because Minerva vanished.

“Hehe, then we can start…”

“But before that, I just want to ask one thing.”

The main reason for staying here with Nix to learn magic; it was time to ask that question.

“I heard it directly from the deity of the Holy Kingdom. Nix, you crossed over from another world, right?”

“……”

The smiles that had been cheerfully grinning slowly drooped. The dark pupils darkened grimly.

“I won’t ask how you crossed over. Surely the Goddess took care of it.”

“……”

“What I want to ask is one thing. The world you came from, I think I have a memory of it. I can roughly guess.”

Since Nix herself had mentioned the centipede, I was half-convinced, though at first, I was about to say Brightest Darkness 3 but opted for a more vague expression just in case.

“In that world, who was the one that did True Death to all humans touched by the Immortal Centipede and decided the end of the world?”

In other words, the protagonist of Brightest Darkness 3.

There was a reason I asked this question. Ever since then, I kept feeling something was off.

Clearly, the developers said that Brightest Darkness 1-3 and Brightest Darkness 4 are entirely different worlds, yet here it was emerging seemingly governed by the same deities, the Sun and Moon.

At least, as far as I knew, that shouldn’t be the case.

“……”

Nix stared at me with eyes that had lost all light for a while before slowly opening her mouth.

“It’s standing right in front of you.”

“What?”