Chapter 362: Eighty-Fourth Floor, Sea of Lava (3)
[Investigate the Sea of Lava, identify the source of the problem, and resolve it. Time remaining: 118 hours 53 minutes.]
After my brief exchange with Sokin, the guards escorted me to a small room on the headquarters’ third floor. They had designated it as my personal research office.
The space was neatly arranged, filled with books and organized stacks of accumulated research data. However, since I couldn’t read their language, there was no real reason for me to go through any of it.
Amusingly enough, the room offered a full view of the ocean.
The ocean happens to be a sea of magma, though.
Still, sitting in the chair and quietly gazing out at the lava fields had a surprisingly calming effect. Once my mind had settled, I began to understand why they hadn’t managed to locate the trench yet.
According to Remtal, the trench beneath the Sea of Lava was spoken of only in legend. They had only recently begun developing submersibles capable of exploring it in earnest.
So locating the trench will probably be the core of the eighty-fourth floor.
One thing became particularly clear after meeting the king, however. The people of this world weren’t very strong. The royal bodyguard assigned to him was weaker than even the lower-ranked climbers.
Considering how the strength of a floor’s inhabitants scaled the further I climbed, it struck me as unusual. This made it all the more likely that the trial’s difficulty lay elsewhere.
Not that this realization made me feel any more at ease.
Searching for a trench beneath a molten sea isn’t simple.