Free Web NovelChapter 19: Chapter 19: The test, not that one
"Zach?"
They got no response.
---
"It’s a caravan," Zach said.
"Where am I?"
He looked around.
’I thought I made it to the party. No, I did make it.’ freeweɓnøvel.com
Zach was confused.
He noticed some other people walking around.
The caravan shook.
None of the others seemed to feel it.
They simply continued on with whatever they were doing.
"Hey! Hey!" he shouted.
Zach got no response.
He decided to go ask and talk to those guys directly.
He walked over to one of them.
Still no response.
"Hey."
He was well within speaking distance.
"I don’t want to violate your rights like this, but whatever."
Zach reached for the person’s shoulder.
His hand went right through it.
"What?"
He didn’t understand.
This was when he noticed something was definitely up.
’I don’t get it.’
’Wait. Are these things all projections?’
Someone else came by.
Zach noticed his mouth seemed to be moving.
He just wasn’t hearing anything on his end.
This other person tried to make physical contact as well.
Nothing happened.
"Huh."
"So it’s not strange."
’Could this be the result of some mage’s spell?’
Zach wasn’t particularly bright.
He’d been bullied in real life, and now, even in a fantasy world, he still had a lot to make up for.
There was another shake.
This time, Zach didn’t feel it.
The two beside him, however, were stunned.
One even fell over.
The entire place glitched for a second.
That second felt like a hell of a long time.
It was electric.
A voice was heard.
"You’ve all been summoned from different worlds."
"What?"
Zach exclaimed.
He looked around.
’Different worlds? Does that mean I died?’
’Is this some transmigration stuff?’
He was thinking all the wrong things.
He noticed the walls had inscriptions.
He knew them.
He even went over and read a few.
This was when an image flashed through his mind.
An old man.
The old man who would comfort him and tell him to hang on just a little longer.
It was this old man who had taught him to read the strange language.
The voice disappeared for a moment after telling them to do but one thing.
"Read the walls."
"Mark it out and proceed."
The instructions were vague.
"It’s clearly some kind of test," Zach said.
"However, it just sounded like a whole bunch of nothing was said."
He had only recently come across the old man.
He was sure he wouldn’t even be able to read much.
The old man had only taught him rather basic symbols.
"If this thing’s a whole language, then I’m in serious trouble," Zach said.
He began thinking aloud.
There was really no point keeping his thoughts to himself.
No one present could even hear him.
"These are..."
"No way."
"Shit."
Zach stared at the wall.
"These are all inscriptions matching the exact symbols I was taught."
He read.
"The gods left."
"Their mana dispersed."
"A barrier was formed."
"Man thrived."
"Monsters thrived."
"Man began to fall."
"The gods sealed portions of mana together."
"The mana was encoded and written in script."
"This unraveled as a man system."
"The man system would come into use."
"When the time came, the system would bear a different name."
"Not man."
"The God System."
Zach read.
The flow was all wrong.
The English and grammar were definitely unconventional.
But he understood.
Today was the day the wielder of the God System would be selected.
He was seen as worthy to be a possible candidate.
He smiled.
Immediately, he panicked as a thought came flying in.
’That voice...’
’That voice required that we follow the instructions.’
’I’ve only read the prelude.’
’It felt like reading some wacky bedtime story.’
’How do I even go about reading some path description?’
He noticed no one else seemed to be making any progress.
He walked forward.
He’d read what seemed like the beginning.
There was no time to spend attempting to read the whole text.
’If there’s an instruction, it’s bound to be at the end of it all.’
’The end of the whole text.’
He ran forward.
His eyes never lost sight of the patterns on the walls.
Finally, he came to a stop.
This was the end.
He smiled.
Then immediately wiped the smile from his face.
"This isn’t the time."
"I’ll smile after I’ve gotten this whole shit figured out."
He tried reading it.
To his own surprise, he could.
It was clearly harder than before, but he could.
That was all that mattered.
"The End Path."
"Travel to the ends of not the ground but the realm."
"What waits at the end is nothing but a gift."
"The road to the end is..."
"It ends there," Zach said.
"The whole reading ends right there."
’Journey to the end.’
He thought.
Then stopped.
"Here goes."
He dashed off.
Some noticed and decided to follow him from behind.
To them, it seemed like he’d figured something out.
They didn’t want to be left behind.
Zach was in the lead.
He noticed the others were chasing after him, but he wasn’t worried.
"Look up!"
One shouted.
No one could hear him.
He pointed.
Only those behind noticed.
It was a giant boulder coming from the roof.
It somehow fell.
"I’m going to make it," Zach said after realizing he was past the boulder’s reach.
It crushed a lot of them.
Zach’s lead was no longer in question.
The others thought hard about how they would have to get around the boulder.
It was now blocking their path.
By the time they got past it, Zach was kind of out of sight.
"Arrows?"
"From where, though?"
He had little combat ability, but he knew he had to do something.
This was when he realized his spells didn’t work.
He reached deep inside.
"My mana."
"How?" freewёbnoνel.com
"There is no mana in this caravan."
"Mana and its effects are poison."
He heard it.
The mysterious voice again.
He got cut.
Nothing too serious.
Flames erupted from beneath him.
He was caught in the embers.
He didn’t die.
His muscles just couldn’t move.
His body charred.
’It’s over.’
He knew it was.
He was about to give up.
Then Zach remembered the text.
’Journey till the end.’
He dragged himself forward.
Using his hands and torso, he somehow propelled himself onward.
He was slow.
But he was making progress.
He couldn’t move any other body part.
A loud thud echoed from above.
He knew what it meant.
Another boulder.
He struggled to get past the impact zone.
He didn’t.
It crushed him.
Dividing Zach into perfect halves.
He continued to struggle.
There was a lake ahead.
He made it.
The others had given up.
Expecting death with each encounter.
Only Zach had cracked the code.
There was no death.
Zach was the only one who realized that the journey had momentarily granted them immortality.
He didn’t know how long it would last.
But he knew one thing.
"This hurts like hell."
