Runebound Reverse Tower of The Dead

Chapter 247: Fracture

Kael looked at the notification hovering before him for a moment before selecting yes. If this was truly an A-Class reward, then whatever was inside should at least be useful. The chest materialized before him with a metallic clunk, much smaller than he expected. It was made of dark silver metal, its edges lined with intricate carvings that resembled flowing rivers circling toward a central symbol embedded on the lid. It looked elegant, expensive, and far too decorative for something that was probably meant to help him not die.

He crouched and opened it, only to stare blankly at what rested inside.

A ring.

Kael blinked twice and frowned.

"Interesting..." he muttered under his breath. Looking at his fists first, he already realized it would be hard to use a ring while carrying the gauntlets. Something he’ll ask Andre about later.

As he reached inside and picked the ring up between his fingers he stared at it. The ring itself was smooth and polished, forged from a pale bluish metal he didn’t recognize, with a small crystal embedded into its surface that resembled a frozen droplet of water.

It certainly looked valuable enough, but after everything that happened, after one punching a giant monstrosity and getting showered in hidden achievements, finding a single ring inside an A-Class chest felt slightly underwhelming.

A notification appeared before him as he inspected it.

[You have obtained: Ring of Returning Tides]

[Epic Accessory]

+18% Mana Regeneration

+ 8 INT

Passive:

Restores a small percentage of mana over time while not actively casting.

Lore:

Even the exhausted sea returns to itself.

***

Kael read through the description once, then again, hoping he had somehow missed another effect hidden somewhere in the text.

He had not. The ring was useful, objectively speaking.

For anyone else, this was probably an incredible reward, something a mage or caster would kill for, or at the very least something expensive enough to fetch a ridiculous amount of cores.

For him, however, it was close to worthless. He didn’t use mana, didn’t know how to use mana, and unless his body suddenly decided to stop being whatever abomination it currently was and become normal, mana regeneration was about as useful to him as a decorative spoon.

The worst part was he couldn’t even wear the damn thing. Kael looked down at his gauntlets and clenched both fists slightly. There was no chance he was sacrificing either gauntlet slot for a ring that restored a resource he did not possess. Even if he wore it on another finger, it would likely interfere with his grip or punching mechanics. That alone was reason enough to not bother.

"Well," Kael sighed, turning the ring once between his fingers before tossing it into his inventory, "at least I can probably sell it."

The chest dissolved into fragments of light shortly after, disappearing as if it had never existed in the first place. Kael rose to his feet and stretched his shoulders slightly, finally taking a proper look around the room again.

The corpse of the mutated hobgoblin still lay slumped on the floor several meters away, smoke faintly rising from the catastrophic wound that used to be its abdomen. The smell was awful, though compared to some of the things he had experienced with his master, it barely registered.

A low hum suddenly filled the chamber.

Kael paused.

The walls began trembling softly, and pale inscriptions lit themselves across the dark stone in thin glowing lines that crawled outward like veins. The floor beneath him responded shortly after, circles of light spreading from beneath his boots. Kael instinctively lowered his stance, ready in case this was some sort of trap, but instead, a new series of notifications began appearing rapidly before him.

[Anomaly detected.]

[Climber lacks previous death record.]

[Standard Floor 3 Qualification cannot be assigned.]

[Adjusting...]

[Adjusting...]

[Special Qualification Path found.] ƒreewebɳovel.com

Kael frowned deeply as he read through them. "Previous death record?" he muttered, though he didn’t get much time to think about what that meant.

The next notification appeared.

[Entering Special Sequence: Labyrinth of Penance]

The air in the chamber grew heavy.

More text appeared.

[The Dead are measured by their failures.]

[You possess no recorded failure.]

[To climb among the Dead, you must first be weighed.]

[Trial 1 Assigned.]

[Trial of Pain]

Objective: Survive for 7 Days.

Condition: Do not yield.

Failure: Mental Collapse.

A second bar appeared directly below his health.

[Mental Fracture: 0/100]

Kael stared at the new bar with visible suspicion. Nothing about that looked good.

"That sounds like fun," he said that with too little conviction to convince anyone.

Before he could inspect it further, the glowing formation beneath him erupted with light. His vision was swallowed whole, his body feeling as though it had been compressed and stretched at the same time. The sensation only lasted for an instant, but it was unpleasant enough that he instinctively tensed through it.

When his feet touched solid ground again, the first thing he noticed was the cold.

Not ordinary cold either, but the sort that immediately sank through clothing, skin, and muscle all at once. Kael inhaled sharply as freezing air stabbed into his lungs and spread through his chest like shards of glass. He looked around quickly, eyes narrowing as he took in his surroundings.

He was in a forest.

Tall black trees stretched endlessly in every direction, their branches twisted and bare, coated in frost and snow. The ground beneath him was uneven and blanketed in thick white layers that crunched under his boots with every subtle shift of weight. Overhead, the sky was a miserable shade of grey, completely covered by dense clouds. There was no visible sun, no moon, no stars, and no indication of where exactly he was supposed to go.

A new notification appeared.

[Welcome to the Trial of Pain.]

[Day 1 / 7]

[Survive.]

Kael read it, waited for more instructions, then frowned when nothing else came.

"That’s it?"

No map. No objective marker. No visible shelter or landmarks. No enemy in sight.

Just snow, trees, and cold.

Kael exhaled slowly and immediately began assessing the situation. Standing still in an environment like this was idiotic. The mountains had taught him enough to know that cold killed the lazy first. Without wasting time, he adjusted his gauntlets and started walking forward through the snow, choosing a random direction simply because remaining idle was worse.

The forest was unnaturally quiet. There were no birds overhead, no insects hidden beneath bark or branches, no distant movement beyond the occasional sweep of wind cutting through the trees. It was only after nearly fifteen minutes of walking that Kael suddenly felt a sharp sting near the side of his foot. freёwebnovel.com

He stopped and looked down.

A small thorn, nearly invisible beneath the snow, had pierced through the side of his boot and nicked his skin. It was shallow enough to be irrelevant. Kael simply pulled his foot free and kept walking.

A notification appeared.

[Minor pain registered.]

[Mental Fracture +1]

[Mental Fracture: 1/100]

Kael slowed his pace slightly and stared at the message. "You’ve got to be kidding me."

He looked down at his foot again. The wound itself was already insignificant, as expected. Yet strangely enough, the sensation remained. The tiny sting from the thorn did not fade even after several more steps. It remained fresh and irritating, as though the prick had only just happened.

Kael’s expression slowly shifted from mild annoyance to understanding.

The pain remained as fresh as when he got pricked. It felt like the thorn was still stuck in his toe even after he had removed it personally, by hand.

"Oh, That’s why it’s called the Trial of Pain... Well shit." he muttered quietly.

He continued walking, now far more aware of his surroundings. Only a few minutes later, a sharp gust of freezing wind struck the exposed portions of his face and neck. The cold bit into his skin hard enough to feel like a thousand tiny needles.

Another notification appeared.

[Environmental pain registered.]

[Mental Fracture +1]

[Mental Fracture: 2/100]

Kael stared blankly ahead for a few seconds, then sighed deeply.

This was not a trial about injury.

This was a trial about accumulation.

Every discomfort, every wound, every source of pain would remain with him mentally no matter how small. A cut, a bruise, a blister, cold exposure, hunger, exhaustion. Individually, each one was manageable. Together, over seven days, they would become unbearable.

A very irritating design.

Kael pulled something from his inventory. A cloak he got from his master back at the mountain during the colder times of the year. It was patchy, old, and smelled of mold. But right now, it was pretty damn useful and far more valuable than anything on him right now.

He wrapped cloak tighter around himself and continued deeper into the forest, snow crunching beneath his boots while the tiny thorn prick in his foot and the freezing sting on his face accompanied him like invisible parasites.

Somewhere deeper within the woods, a low growl echoed through the trees.

Kael’s eyes sharpened immediately.

At least there was something here besides snow.

He rolled his shoulders once and continued forward.

By the end of the first hour, his Mental Fracture had already reached 5.