“When killing it, make sure you pay close attention—you must never let its corpse fall off the cliff beside it!”
“I know! That’s already the third time you’ve said that!”
Victoria responded with a hint of impatience before taking out a Reflection Gem and an Impact Gem, embedding them into her magic conduit to cast her magic.
A rapidly spinning deep blue water wheel formed in front of her palm in an instant.
Yet the moment she threw it out, the water wheel appeared directly on the opposite side of the cliff from her position.
Pfft!
Accompanied by the dull sound of flesh being pierced, the monster's body was sent flying by the force of the impact from the edge of the cliff to the inner stone wall, preventing it from being knocked off the cliff.
Looking at the two gems turned to ash on her magic conduit, Victoria shouted toward Greg with a touch of heartache, “Remember, you owe me two gems!”
“We’re good bros, why bring that up?”
On the other side of the battlefield, Greg was also about to finish off his opponent.
Facing a Rock-shattering Golem of immense strength, he chose not to clash with it head-on.
Catching the brief stiffness after the golem's charge, he slid sideways with nimble grace while spreading the five fingers of his right hand, aiming at the golem's feet.
“Entwine.”
As his deep voice fell, five ink-black tentacles of mana shot out like living vipers from his fingertips, instantly entwining around the golem’s stony body.
“Roar—!”
The Rock-shattering Golem let out a furious roar and struggled with all its might, its stone body creaking, yet it could not break free from this LV3 proficiency 【Tentacle Entanglement】.
Immediately after, Greg clenched his five fingers tightly!
Crack! Crunch—!
An uncomfortable series of fracturing sounds burst forth one after another!
The five tentacles constricted tightly in different directions to their absolute limit!
Under the erosion of shadow mana and the tearing of immense force, the golem's seemingly indestructible stone body collapsed like forcibly disassembled building blocks, crumbling into small and large rock fragments scattered all over the ground, as the light of mana at its core extinguished.
A prompt popped up in Greg's mind notifying him that he had gained experience points and reached LV30.
This meant his dark-attribute magic only needed one more opportunity to advance to LV3.
However, that was not what he was most focused on right now; he immediately ran over to search the corpse of the humanoid monster Victoria had just killed.
Soon, his fingertips touched a small item with irregular edges.
“Found it!”
He forcibly pulled the item from the corpse's neck and spread it out on his palm.
It was a deep purple fragment roughly the size of a thumb's fingernail, made of a material neither metal nor stone, its edges covered in cracks.
Etched upon the fragment's surface were twisted patterns, while at its center was a slightly raised pupil-shaped relief that had long lost its luster.
Shattered Eye (1/3)
The item description for it in the original game was:
Once reflected scenes that should not be gazed upon, bearing thoughts beyond comprehension. What its complete form witnessed was the collapse of order, the end of all things, and a silent hymn praising fragmentation.
A classic Soulslike item description—vague, ambiguous, and filled with metaphors and ominous implications.
Back when playing the original game, Greg had merely thought the developers were trying to be mysterious, writing a little story to add background atmosphere to the item, never taking it to heart and even finding it a bit pretentious.
Now, however, he was certain that this had everything to do with the faith system of the Mother of Fragmentation!
It might even be a fragment of some sacred relic or status symbol used by those believers back then!
Greg carefully picked up this third fragment of the Shattered Eye, then took out the other two similar fragments he had collected from other monsters during their previous exploration from his pocket.
When the three crack-filled fragments were placed side by side on his palm less than an inch apart, they seemed to be pulled by an invisible force, trembling slightly in unison and letting out an extremely faint hum.
The fine cracks on their surfaces actually began to extend, align, and mend as if they possessed life!
The fragments themselves also slowly floated up, spinning and drawing closer in midair...
Hum—!
After a louder hum, a purple light flashed and vanished.
The three fragments had seamlessly joined together, forming a complete, deep-purple eye-shaped object roughly the size of a pigeon egg.
The cracks at the seams were almost invisible; one could only spot the extremely faint join lines by examining it closely against the light.
Unlike when it was in fragments, the pupil on this complete eye—which had lost its luster on the pieces—was now actually closed.
The lines of the eyelid were soft yet possessed an inhuman stiffness, as though it would never open again.
This magical and unearthly sight left Victoria and Silvia staring dumbfounded on the side.
It wasn't that they had never seen magic items resonate or combine, but a scene like this—where items assembled automatically as if driven by their own will—was entirely unheard of.
Victoria’s gaze toward Greg became even more complex.
This guy not only hid his strength deeply, but he also seemed to know all sorts of bizarre knowledge inside out... The secrets on him were bottomless, just like this dungeon.
Silvia’s pink eyes also flickered with amazement and deeper curiosity, though mixed with a hint of imperceptible worry.
The things Senior Greg was coming into contact with seemed to be getting closer and closer to certain... dangerous and ancient realms.
“Good.”
Greg was completely oblivious to the inner turmoil of the two girls, his full attention immersed in the excitement of his plan progressing smoothly.
He carefully put away the complete closed eye.
“Now there’s only one last condition left.”
He looked up, gazing toward a specific direction.
“This path is clear now. Let's head up.”
Under Greg’s familiar lead, the three left the cliffside area and began climbing upward along a small path that had originally been blocked by monsters.
The path was winding and steep, covered in slippery moss and exposed sharp rocks, but it did not pose too much of an obstacle.
After about a quarter of an hour of climbing, they reached a natural ledge platform protruding from the rock wall.
The platform was not large, but it offered an extremely wide field of view.
Standing at the edge of the platform, one could barely make out the shocking sight in the far distance at the center of a super-giant underground cavern through the dim light eternally pervading the cave.
It was a temple ruin so dilapidated it bordered on tragic.
Its architectural style stemmed from the same line as the broken stone pillars they had seen everywhere in the second layer—rugged, ancient, filled with geometric flair and twisted symbolic emblems.
Yet its current scale was incomparable to what they had seen before.
Even from a great distance, even with only shattered walls and ruined pillars remaining, one could still feel its past grandness, majesty, and... a certain suffocating sense of oppression.
Merely gazing at it from afar caused a sense of fear and revulsion to slowly well up in one's heart like a cold tide.
Final condition: Gazing upon the dilapidated temple from afar.
Fulfilled!
At long last, all conditions to trigger the hidden Boss battle were fulfilled!
Rate on N.U.
