How many days had passed since I lost consciousness?

A day? Two days?

Maybe even more.

“My left eye, as expected.”

I opened my eyes and looked down.

The first thing I saw was flesh stained with blood.

My eyeball, which had been my eye before I lost consciousness, was lying on the floor.

As soon as I confirmed it, I felt a sense of relief wash over me.

‘I need to figure it out…….’

In order to survive, I had to figure out what had happened.

It seemed like only my left eye had burst so far, but what if I lost my right eye as well?

It was terrifying just to imagine.

‘A mirror, I need a mirror.’

I tried to find a mirror to figure out the changes that had occurred in my left eye.

As I looked around, I finally realized.

This is a secret realm.

There was no way there would be anything like a mirror here.

In the end, I guess I’ll have to use the next best thing.

Slice-.

I took out the dagger from my arms and turned it sideways.

The side of the dagger was big enough to reflect my face.

The moment I opened my right eye with difficulty and looked at the side of the sword-.

“……!”

I gasped at the unexpected sight.

A ‘new eye’ had appeared in place of my completely shattered left eye.

A pitch-black pupil that twitched like a worm along with black veins.

That eye was very similar to the one in my memory.

“No way?”

A sense of bewilderment spread across my face.

One of the ‘traits’ that I had personally written down in my notes.

Something very similar to that was replacing my left eye.

However, that trait was a setting where one of the main characters had robbed from a certain demon.

On the other hand, I had not robbed this eye from anyone.

The black liquid that popped out of the box just parasitized my eye, didn’t it?

“So the probability of it being exactly the same is low, but……”

Even so, I felt a sense of unease somewhere and brought up my status window in front of me.

【 Arsene Adel 】

: Race - [ Half Demon ]

: Tendency - [ Chaos ]

: Talent - [ Position Exchange ‘Ⅰ’ ]

: Trait - [ Interest ] [ Absorption ] [ Killing Intent ] [ Darkness ] [ Mana Manipulation ] [ Eye of Arrogance ]

: Mana - [ 341 ]

A status window that seemed no different from before.

If you looked closely, there was one newly added trait.

【 Eye of Arrogance 】

I knew what this trait was.

The eyes of one of the main characters who had killed a high-ranking demon and embedded them in their own eyes.

‘I guess that demon was someone from the Bares family.’

It was a scene that I had written myself, but I hadn’t gone into much depth about the settings for the demons after the early parts, so how was I supposed to know?

The plausibility of the scenes I wrote without properly considering the settings seemed to be gradually filling in.

From the Arsene Family’s Gate to the Eye of Arrogance.

These kinds of situations will continue to unfold in the future.

I guess it’s the retribution for all the crap I’ve written in my work so far…….

“Even so, the current situation isn’t bad.”

No, it’s actually good.

Since it was such a fraudulent ability, it was worth suffering the pain.

The authority the Eye of Arrogance possesses.

It was the enhancement of ‘Dynamic Vision’.

If that was all, it wouldn’t have been given the alias of an authority.

When the Eye of Arrogance is activated, the opponent’s movements momentarily stop.

The activation condition was this:

‘Kill the enemy.’

If you kill the enemy, all objects’ actions momentarily stop.

In reality, they don’t actually stop, but the Dynamic Vision rises so drastically that it appears as if they’ve ‘stopped’.

It’s difficult to use because you can’t activate the power against an enemy that is faster and stronger than you.

But if you’re fighting against a large number of weak enemies, it will be an unprecedented weapon.

When the Eye of Arrogance is activated, the enemy’s movements will look like worms wriggling.

Literally-.

A trait that flaunts arrogance, like crushing an ant with your finger.

An unexpected gain.

A big smile naturally formed on my lips.

To think I got my hands on such a trait right after escaping from the Arsene Family.

Coming to the Demon Realm was definitely the right choice.

*Sk-.*

I glanced at the Eye of Arrogance reflected in the status window and turned my head.

“It seems like I’ve gotten everything I can get.”

Now it’s time to leave the secret realm.

However, there’s something bothering me.

‘Is it okay to leave?’

I looked behind the chest.

A door with the black dragon emblem of the Bares Family was firmly in place.

And as if to say I could open it at any time, there were no obstacles around it.

If I open the door, the scenery outside the secret realm will probably come into view.

I was worried about that.

“……I might die if I go out.”

Since I caused such a commotion in the secret realm, the Bares Family must have heard about it.

There are probably numerous troops waiting outside the door to find out who the intruder is.

There’s something to think about here.

Would the owner of the secret realm want to keep the thief who stole the Eye of Arrogance alive?

“…….”

I shut my mouth because even I thought it was a ridiculous assumption.

Killing me painlessly would be the greatest mercy they could offer.

“This is crazy.”

I looked at the exit and cursed myself.

If I didn’t leave, I would eventually starve to death here.

If I left, I would be killed by the Bares family.

Adel’s talent was outstanding, but it was impossible to defeat them.

‘I can’t even use the information paper.’

It was the first thing that came to mind to solve this situation, but I soon realized that it wouldn’t help.

The information paper could only provide ‘information’, not a direct solution to the situation.

“Then there is only one way.”

I quickly knelt down towards the Bares family outside the Trial.

Isn’t there a saying that the enemy of my enemy is my friend?

I, who had to get revenge on the six families, might surprisingly get along well with them.

Hmm, come to think of it, if they heard that I was a descendant of the Arsene family, they would try to kill me right away…….

I just kept sighing repeatedly because there was no answer.

- You bastard, open the door right now!

A hoarse and cracked voice was heard.

I turned my head towards the direction of the voice and saw the Death Knight, trembling with fear, pounding on the barrier.

Wait.

Death Knight?

He should have self-destructed while knocking on the barrier because I had used Position Exchange.

Why is he alive?

Suddenly, an ominous thought came to mind.

‘What if…….’

What if this wasn’t an ordinary intermediate secret realm, but a secret realm where guardians regenerate?

What if it’s not just a secret realm of the Bares Family, but a secret realm for a test created directly by the ‘head of the family’?

That would explain everything.

‘Then the one taking the test right now is…….’

The intruder who made even the Death Knight, the last guardian of the secret realm, tremble in fear.

They must be the protagonist of this test.

And right now, they are,

Coming to where I am.

“Damn it.”

I felt my mind getting dizzy and cursed.

The Death Knight was the enemy I had to defeat before I lost consciousness.

An indescribable sense of camaraderie welled up as I realized why he was whimpering.

But I couldn’t just stand there dumbfounded because I was facing a powerful enemy.

I took out the information paper from my pocket.

The paper wouldn’t give me a specific answer on how to survive, but I could get the information I wanted.

The identity of the person who was the ‘closest’ to me.

Death Knight wasn’t a living being, so it wouldn’t be specified as a person.

So the paper had no choice but to obediently spit out the information I wanted.

『This is information that requires a price.』

『Please pay the price of an artifact at the relic level or more, or 100 gold coins or more.』

But before that, I had to pay the price.

It was unfortunate. My pockets were empty.

But that didn’t mean there was no way.

I just had to give something equivalent to the price the paper suggested.

- I will pay the price of 100 of my mana limits.

As I scribbled with the fountain pen, the paper seemed to be weighing the price it had suggested.

And after a few seconds passed.

『I judge the price to be sufficient.』

『I will take 100 of the Creator’s mana limits.』

After the words were written on the paper.

I shook my shoulders slightly with a strong sense of emptiness.

I had to permanently give up as much as 100 mana, but it was necessary.

It wasn’t easy to increase my mana limits, but it wasn’t too difficult either, so it wasn’t a big problem.

Anyway, if I just survived here, I would be able to recover enough.

What I desperately needed now was information that could help me escape this situation.

I blinked once and focused on the contents of the paper again.

And the following words.

I unconsciously swallowed the vain wind.

『The person closest to the Creator is Rene, the youngest daughter of Crete, the head of the Bares family.』