NOVEL NEXT Chapter 114: The Ten-Minute Trial
—l
[Death Siege: My dear companion, you should not have slain those wardens and jailors so rashly. They had already been tainted by the demon cultists, their souls teetering on the edge of detachment.
By killing them, you drove their souls into transformation, turning them into terrifying Specters. Even the slightest contact with those wraiths will cast you into unending torment.
I must deliver word of this temple's occupation by the demon cult. We cannot allow our people to become cannon fodder for demons.
But the entire temple is sealed beneath a barrier. Escape is impossible unless it is dispelled. Place your soul within my body; I must put mine to rest if I am to awaken the Guardian Spirit of this temple.
Of course, before that, it would be best to escape this dungeon, otherwise we will both be dragged into eternal suffering.
Objective: Evade the Specters in the dungeon 0/1
Reward: 3000 EXP; 15 Silver]
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The quest reward looked completely out of proportion to the difficulty, but that was only because the mission could be cleared in different ways. The reward listed on the quest text was for the lowest tier of completion.
At the simplest level, all Ryan needed to do, after taking control of the Gnoll Priest Jinar's body, was to die. The dungeon's Specters would strike him down, mistake him for truly dead, and then disperse.
But this wasn't counted as failure. Jinar's soul remained safeguarded by the player, hidden away while the temple's barrier was being undone. Even death carried no stamina penalty here. It played out like a scripted sequence: once the ten-minute escape timer reached zero, a cutscene would trigger.
In it, the Gnoll Priest would awaken within his body, which the Specters had thought destroyed. He would shatter the barrier around the temple and break free, though his escape would lead directly into pursuit by the Gnoll Guards, driving him eventually into the path of the Druidic Order's sentinels. The quest would still be marked as complete at that point, though the reward would be as miserly as written.
In Ryan's previous life, players almost never survived the full ten minutes. Every attempt ended the same way, overwhelmed by the Specters in the twisting dungeon halls. Yet because the quest still resolved as complete, no one questioned whether it could end differently.
It seemed reasonable: a labyrinth with dozens of corridors, filled with endless wraiths spawning from every direction, and no way to fight back. Of course everyone believed the intended outcome was simply to die and let the cutscene roll.
But there were always players unwilling to accept what seemed obvious. Someone eventually noticed the timer and refused to give in. After a brutal chase, they somehow lasted the full ten minutes. When the barrier collapsed, they escaped in one piece.
And then the truth was revealed. Surviving unlocked an additional reward quest—one that granted a rare piece of equipment tailored to the player's class and specialization.
When this discovery spread across the forums, it arrived at the perfect moment: the community was exhausted, stuck on the final boss of the main dungeon raid. The ten-minute escape quickly became a new obsession, a challenge players threw themselves into for both frustration and fun.
During this quest, every player's health was fixed at seven hundred and fifty. Each strike from a Specter tore away fifty points, which meant only fifteen hits before collapse. Worse still, the attacks could critically strike. On average, two out of fifteen blows would land as criticals, reducing the number of survivable hits to around thirteen.
Despite endless attempts and countless hours of research, no player had ever cleared the quest without taking damage. Discussions on the forums called it "theoretical only."
The dungeon itself was a twisted maze, cut through with dozens of branching corridors. From the second level onward, players had to endure ten full minutes of pursuit, darting through the labyrinth while evading the relentless Specters.
Both Specters and players moved at the same speed, so speed-boosting skills were useless. Worse, every time a player crossed an intersection, two new Specters would spawn from two of the three possible paths, leaving only one safe route forward.
The rules were merciless. If caught, a Specter would lay a hand on Jinar's body, draining fifty health before vanishing. If a player blundered into a dead end, there was no way out; they could only wait to be surrounded and struck down.
Success required precision, foresight, and near-perfect awareness of the dungeon's shifting dangers. The first minutes lulled players into a false sense of control, but as the chase wore on, the pressure mounted, and the final minutes became a slaughterhouse where most runs ended.
This was why the quest earned its name: Death Siege. Some players grew obsessed with it, rolling new characters purely to challenge the dungeon again and again, honing their calculations and sharpening their reflexes.
In all of Ryan's past memories, only one player ever came close to perfection. Archress Mageress. Her run was legendary. If she hadn't miscalculated a single turn in the final seconds, she would have been the first and only player to complete Death Siege with full health.
That near-flawless attempt launched her from obscurity into fame overnight. Guild invitations poured in from every corner of the game, until she finally accepted Crimson Wake's offer and became one of their tactical masters.
Ryan himself, back then a Paladin, had tried Death Siege many times. His class demanded careful calculations, yet the best he had ever managed was escaping with half his health intact.
A full-health clear was not impossible, though. Mageress herself admitted afterward that luck was the final piece of the puzzle. With extraordinary fortune, even an average player might stumble through unscathed.
That was why Ironblood Blade's Glorious Achievement had stunned him. Ryan could only assume the man's run had been fueled by luck so outrageous it bordered on divine favor.
Even so, the thought unsettled him. Anyone capable of achieving such a feat—even by chance—was dangerous. Luck might open the door, but surviving the siege still demanded skill. Ryan knew better than to dismiss his rival.
His thoughts cut short as the world shifted. His vision darkened, then opened again to the dim corridors of the dungeon. His body was no longer his own but that of the Gnoll Priest Jinar.
The system's words burned into his mind.
Death Siege—commenced!