Dungeon of Pride, Laplace

As Simon was worrying about that, from the corner of his eyes, he saw a zombie being spawned with a key. He immediately made short work of it and held the key in his hand, his eyes wondered whether this was the right key or not.

Unlike the last time, Simon did not immediately rush out to try the key and instead waited for some time. The reason for that was simple, he wanted to know whether there would be another zombie that would spawn with a key while he was holding onto one.

His inquisitive mind wanted to solve more of the mysteries of this trial. His patience had proven right after a while, another zombie that had a key on its waist, spawned from the ground.

Simon used his claws that was buffed by curse energy to immediately dispose it.

Now, the next thing that happened surprised Simon. When he grabbed the second key, the first key that he was holding onto, scattered away like dust indicating that he can only hold onto one key at a time.

Was this the correct key? Simon did not know but until unless he tries he would never know.

Holding onto the key, Simon rushed out of the vault only to find that the positions of the door had changed probably even the numbers on them was reset, there was no telling.

He observed the key carefully and observed that there was a number corresponding to one of the doors carved in it.

The door that the key matched with, was right most corner. Simon deliberated for a while before looking at the time limit which was slowly ticking down.

He cannot dilly dally anymore and decided on staking it on his luck. He inserted the key and pushed the door open only to get another disappointing result.

[You have opened the fourth door of the vault of numerals and find an empty place. The doors will be reset, tries remaining 2/4].

It was yet another empty room. Who was he kidding, his luck was never good from the start, staking his chances on it was a big mistake on his part.

Well at the very least, he opened a different door in his second try, this can be seen as progress right?

Simon tried thinking positively so as to keep his mind cool until he figures out an answer.

Just like the first time, he found himself back inside the first vault that was spawning zombies like crazy. However, Simon did not go crazy and start another one sided massacre and instead only immobilised them by cutting off their torso so that they weren't able to move.

Although doing so would only strain his mind and body, he had no choice but do so because if he killed any more zombies, he would be unable to absorb the curse energy they release and it would only end up harming rather than benefitting him.

As he busied himself in supressing them, Simon finally realised why the trail had given a time limit of five hours. He couldn't help but laugh at himself who thought that the time limit was too generous at first.

Now though, no matter how much time he was given, he would still think that it would never be enough to solve this trail.

At least for him, he could somewhat cheat and make use of some of the flaws within the system. However, for an ordinary challenger who had to follow the rules, this trail was nothing sort of nightmare.

What Simon failed to realise was that the forbidden grounds doesn't just invite anyone and those that it does, bring along group of teammates with them who they can clear it with.

The trail was design in way such that the challenges can only be overcome by working together to share the burden and the reward. It was by no means meant to be cleared alone.

It was not like there was no case of somebody trying to clear it alone, blinded by greed, many conceited ones who were over confident of their strength, entered the forbidden trails alone.

However, none of them managed to clear it. Those who managed to clear the forbidden trails had the aid of their subordinates or teammates, even then they were exceptional even among extra-ordinary and were now the tyrants of this era.

There is a reason why high levelled people cannot enter the trails, each of the forbidden grounds have a powerful barrier protecting it that repels any or all high level beings that try to enter it.

Lucine managed to enter the forbidden ground because she had utilised a special technique and locked her strength. Though if the trail had detected her true level, the consequeses she would have had to suffer would have been disastrous.

Thus, there weren't many fool who tried to use such an advanced technique to slip inside the forbidden grounds.

In that regards, Simon was an anomaly even amongst anomaly. He wasn't all powerful nor did he bring a group of subordinates to aid him, yet he was clearing the trail all by himself.

As time ticked by, the spawning rate of the zombie started becoming higher and higher leading Simon to cull some of the few even though he knew that would strengthen the other zombies.

"This one doesn't seem like the key, not this one either" Simon discarded one key after another. Though there could be a high possibility of the correct key being amongst the few keys he had discarded, he just instinctively felt like those were just hoax keys meant to waste his time and reduce his number of tries.

TICK..TICK..TICK… the time limit kept on ticking down and there was less than half an hour remaining now. The curse energy inside the vault was quite dense now leading to the unique zombies becoming quite stronger.

Nonetheless, Simon himself was also buffed by that energy and hence managed to somehow coup up with their number. But his real enemies was not the zombies, but the time.

By now, he had killed at least a dozen of key zombies and could have used those to try his luck on the doors outside.

Nonetheless, he did not do so and waste his last two chances. The trials are not that much different from a dungeon, the clue should definitely be in that information.

As a game developer before and a dungeon master, Simon just knew it.

"What is that I am missing??" he racked his brain and recalled the information again and again all the while fighting a horde of level 480+ unique zombies.

[Ozy is furious at the one who seeks the crown and sends it subordinate to destroy it. The crown is inside one of the doors that lead to Yela's crypt. Find the zombie that has the key to the door before the time runs out and ozy's subordinates destroy the crown. Warning, each wrong zombie that you kill will strengthen the other zombies].

As he was thinking about that, Simon culled another key zombie with his claws. While he was holding the key deciding whether he should risk it or not given the limit was now less than twenty minutes, from the corner of his eyes he curse energy seep out from the body of the key zombie and spread around the surroundings.

At that moment, it finally donned onto him and what was that he was missing. The information said that each wrong zombie that he killed would strengthen the other zombies which meant that all of the wrong zombies had curse energy within them.

That is to say, the key zombie that did not have curse energy within it, was holding the correct key.

The moment Simon realised that, everything suddenly started making sense. There was no need for him to find the correct key from the numerous key zombies, there had always been only one correct key from the start.

The clue was right there in front of him all along, the other information was just there to divert his mind.

Simon looked at the time limit and cursed, sweat tickled down his face. Now that it had to this, he had no choice but to take on the entire horde find the right key zombie that was hiding within it.

<strong> ROOOAAARRR</strong>…

Simon issued a loud demonic roar and with a reinvigorated spirit, dived amidst the horde. He activated his augmenting skills and further buffed his already powerful physical body.

Since he was using the curse energy instead of the standard mystical energy, he had no way of harnessing the element. Although he can't use his magic, it did not mean that he couldn't use his basic skills.

Instead of powering them with mana, he used the curse energy to achieve the same effect.

With outstretched claws and wings and the overflowing curse energy oozing out of his body, he looked extremely demonic.

With every swipe of his claws, dozens of zombies would be culled and mowed down underneath him.

'Not this one… this one is no good either' Simon muttered internally after seeing that the key zombies he had defeated release curse energy from them.

Time ticked down and just when Simon was getting anxious, he noticed a peculiar zombie standing still at the back of the horde for a long time.

It had a belt on its waist which had a key hanging on it. There were many zombies with key all around him but for some reason, that zombie which had been acting atypical from the other zombies around it, attracted his attention.