[Silver Ash] - Become The Strongest In Another World
CHAPTER 174: Absurdity (1)

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"I can't see anything! Where is this?! "

"Whisper, relax! You screamed right in my ear! "

"I don't know who you are, but you stepped on my foot! "

"Ohh, sorry. That's probably me. Here, are you relieved? "

"Ohh, yeah. That's good."

"By the way, whose hand is this? You pressed my stomach."

"Don't complain, this place is very narrow. It's hard for me to move. And also, you're Noelle, right? Don't you usually see in the dark? "

"I usually can, but somehow my night vision is off now."

"Tch, it's useless."

It had not been a minute since they had finally moved to this place. But, a small mess instantly occurred and made them into a difficulty to understand the situation.

Noelle had found a way out of the endless passage, but the exit she found led her to another strange place.

This place was very narrow, and also so dark that he could not see anything.

The three restlessly continued to move their bodies and squeezed each other to find a way out. However, everything was in vain.

What the three of them did actually made the place feel even narrower. Norman even began to have difficulty breathing due to the crush of Noelle and Cryll who kept crammed into each other.

A little accident is inevitable, so each of them can still understand it, but still annoying it feels when there are others who continue to squeeze your body like that.

"Ahhh, dammit! Don't move yet! I'm gonna try something! " noelle shouted in a voice held as low as possible so as not to hurt Cryll and Norman's ears.

Cryll and Norman finally calmed down, and waited for what Noelle would do next.

After that, Noelle tried to use her magic and create tiny light particles in the air.

It worked, but the light it produced was too dim. With such a level of light, Noelle could only see the Cryll blond hair that was right before her.

"It's still very dark .. It's not as usual" Noelle said confusedly.

"Try to strengthen," Cryll replied as he narrowed his eyes to focus his gaze on the light particles.

Noelle nodded, and injected more magic energy into the spell.

Finally, the number of light particles in the air increased and made them able to see the slight conditions around them.

Norman looked at the surroundings in confusion, then narrowed his eyes. "What is possible ... This darkness absorbs all its light? "

"The words sound ridiculous, but they're also cool at the same time. Damn it, I wonder how you can pronounce it naturally that way."

"Eh? "

Norman turned his head slightly to give a confused and irritated look at Noelle. Despite that, Noelle ignored him and increased the amount of magic energy on those light particles.

The conclusion he had was the same as Norman. The darkness that enveloped this place, might be able to absorb almost all the light that was around it.

This reminded Noelle of Olivia's obsidian eyes, and made her pause while realizing the similarities.

When the amount of magic energy that became its fuel was drastically increased, those light particles ended up multiplying in number, and increased the intensity of the light there.

Finally, the three of them could look around more clearly.

"What is this .. Glass? "

Cryll placed his palm on the 'glass' surface that became a cage for himself and the two people behind him.

"No, it's not, '" Noelle replied, sticking her palm there.

Norman simply stuck his fingertip there, and immediately scrunched his forehead in confusion.

"It's weird ... It's not like glass, but .. I can't feel the magic that shapes it either … "

Noelle also realized that. To find the answer, he tried to destroy the 'glass' with his physical strength, but it was in vain.

The pulses that he landed on the surface were actually muted so smoothly that Noelle could not even feel any wounds on the surface of his fist.

Physical strength was impossible, so he immediately crossed off that choice from the pseudo list he had made in his head.

Noelle then re-attached her palm there, and drained her magic energy into her hand.

He had intended to make a shockwave strong enough to destroy it, but it seemed that it was useless as well.

"Ughh–"

The shockwave that he unleashed in a terrifying manner was reflected back on himself.

"Damn … "

Noelle now felt for herself just how powerful the shockwave she was emitting was. It was like his internal organs had been destroyed from the outside. It was a truly horrible sensation.

But, Noelle then realized it.

(I .. Can you feel pain? )

This has happened quite often lately, so he was not too surprised by the sudden sensation. But, he was still confused as to why the pain was still present even when the resistance or absence to his physical pain was still active.

Noelle was curious about the reason, but she didn't care much anymore. The one in her head right now was an extremely strong intention to immediately exit this place and reunite with Olivia.

"Keep away a little bit" Noelle told Cryll and Norman.

The two of them seemed to want to ask something, but remained silent when they saw Noelle was about to do something.

Noelle held onto Langen's handle which was still hung on her back, and drastically changed its size to that of a dagger less than 40 centimeters long.

When Langen's transformation was complete, Noelle immediately stuck Langen's tip on that surface while activating Langen's special ability.

Small cracks were created, and slowly began to turn into larger cracks and spread throughout their field of view.

"The sword that can cut everything, yes .. I didn't know you could use it that way" Cryll said, commenting on what Noelle had just done.

Norman who was standing right beside her said nothing and silently watched what Noelle was doing.

Soon, the cracks finally filled their field of view. Noelle pulled Langen off that surface and re-attached him quickly giving him enough force to break the barrier.

Finally, the barrier that restricted their movement shattered and turned into particles of light.

"We're finally out … "

Cryll began to stretch his own body, while Norman sat down with his legs straight forward to be stretched.

"I think this is the best .." Norman muttered as he glanced at Noelle who was investigating the location around her.

"Do you have any leads on where we are now? " ask Norman to Noelle.

Noelle shook her head and clicked her tongue in annoyance. "No, not at all. It's too dark, I can't see anything."

Even if the barrier restricting their movement had been destroyed, it did not cover the other matter of this extremely dark place.

The only light source there was the light particles Noelle created by utilizing light magic.

As Noelle said, the place was too dark to see anything. So he can't even do an investigation there.

As a result, Noelle could only continuously drain her magic to create even better lighting.

He tried to use the flashlight he once made when bored, but it turned out to be useless, so he immediately threw it away right then and there.

All of the light particles Noelle created then gathered in one place and transformed into a large and very dense ball of light.

Noelle controlled it by making it float in the air would spread the light more effectively. As a result, everything becomes clearer.

After all, it was indeed something strange and unclear that the three of them became confused.

A house, or perhaps a cone-roofed stage cottage made of wood and dry foliage, as well as a garden with a strange plant shape. There was a flower with a large central eyeball, and there was a large tree with a head and a conical witch hat that grew as its fruit.

The house on the stage also looked strange. No colors decorate it, all just black and white. The few white stars that did not emit the slightest light seemed to flicker several times, before finally disappearing into the familiar rainbow particles.

"What the fuck is this … "

Even though Noelle voiced her sense of confusion firmly, there was not a single answer from the two people by her side. The three of them just continued to pay attention to the scene with a confused look as well as disgust.

Normam finally came to a realization. He tried to approach one of the plants with an eyeball growing in its middle, and intended to touch it for further investigation.

But, the eyeball in the center of the flower instantly turned into a mouth filled with canines.

Norman gasped and reflexively retreated his legs back to dodge, but the plant aggressively continued to try to attack him.

The stalk elongated and tried to reach Norman's neck, but Norman had first drawn the survival knife hanging from his belt and slashed at the stalk of the plant that was trying to attack him.

When the stalk was destroyed, the plant helplessly fell to the ground. The mouth filled with canines was seen opening and closing several times, before finally vanishing into ashes on the spot.

"What the fuck is that … "

The surprised Norman sat on the ground while paying attention to all those plants.

"I guess all the plants that are here are plant-type monsters that will attack everything that comes close."

Noelle suddenly appeared behind him and crouched down to check the ash from the plant.

Hardly any information could be extracted from the ashes, but Noelle was somehow able to obtain a certain amount of information thanks to watching the plants attacking Norman.

Based on what he saw, the plant-type monster that was here was a monster with an aggressive defensive type. They will attack when they feel danger approaching them.

So, the three of them should be able to pass through this place without fighting a single bit if they could make all of these monsters believe that they were not a threat.

"That becomes a problem .. How can we get out of here … "

Cryll blatantly voiced his confusion, and made Noelle almost massage her own head.

"For now we still don't know. But, I want you to pay attention to everything you touch, lest any traps be active just because of your accident."

Noelle said that with great emphasis while glancing at Cryll.

Cryll nodded casually and folded his arms while watching the stage house.

"Well, whatever it is .. I have a feeling we're gonna find what we're looking for there."

"Yes," Norman replied while nodding as a sign of approval.

"I think it's obvious" Noelle replied.

The three were only so staring for a while, before finally agreeing to inspect the stage house.

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"Seriously, what the fuck is this place?! "

As soon as the three of them entered that stage house, what greeted them was total darkness. But, strangely they could still see all the objects that were around them.

It was not like the light had disappeared, but the place was indeed completely pitch-black making it difficult to see or feel its surface.

There's a lot of things in there. One of them was a few statues of equivalent size to an average adult man.

What made them naturally interested in the statue was its strange design. His body shape was similar to that of a normal man, but they all had additional physical traits that were somewhat unreasonable.

One of the statues there has another statue in the form of a large goat that is fused with the stomach. On its back is also the head of a horse with its eyelids open and close at regular intervals.

Other sculptures are no less strange. Each of these statues has animal features on their body parts.

And not only that, there was also a statue of a big cow with small legs like a goat, but the head of an old man was wrinkled and bearded.

Noelle, Cryll and Norman who saw it all inevitably categorize the scene before them as the 'weirdest and most disgusting sight' they have ever seen in their entire lives.

All the statues did not look real because they only had a pale marble white color, but it was enough to give a bad impression on everyone who saw it.

Noelle really did not want to approach, or even touch the statue, but she was forced to do so for the sake of prying information.

Noelle approached a statue of the man with the head of a dolphin and had the hands of a gorilla, then stuck his fingertips there.

For a moment, nothing happened. Noelle again let go of her hand and used Langen who had returned to her original size, then used it to destroy the statue.

Cryll and Norman were a little worried when they saw him. They thought that something might happen if the statue here was destroyed.

But, the bad possibility just didn't happen.

"Is this statue just a decoration? Anyway, don't let your guard down" Noelle said as she looked around.

Cryll behind him shrugged his shoulders, and replied, "Look who said that. You said it right after destroying that strange statue."

"really? "

"You two, calm down."

Norman was starting to get annoyed with the two of them. As a result, he decided to go forward on his own.

"Be careful, we don't know what kind of monster is hiding here" Noelle said.

Norman nodded while increasing his detection distance.

However, when he did that, he was immediately greeted by a tremendous headache.

"Akh– Ughh … "

Holding his own head, Norman began to curl up on the floor.

Noelle and Cryll who saw it were of course confused, but they naturally understood the situation.

Noelle tries to increase her detection range, and is soon greeted by the same pain Norman is experiencing.

Throw's right. In this place, the detection range is very limited. If they were to force it to increase its range, they would only feel tremendous pain.

The tolerance of the three of them towards pain was quite high, so it didn't take long for Noelle and Norman to recover.

The next second, they immediately made some rules for themselves.

Noelle replaces Norman. In her hand, a medium-sized dagger appeared to be in a standby position so Noelle could use it at any time to attack or defend.

A few minutes passed, and the three of them were still walking through the room after room that never ended.

"Didn't .. This house not have a large size? Why are we stuck here so long? " ask Cryll.

Noelle herself had already found the answer, but she hesitated to say it because she had no proof for it.

"Tell me if you know anything" Norman said, glancing at Noelle. She was clearly aware of what Noelle was hiding.

Noelle smiled wryly and finally said it. "This house .. Maybe some kind of large labyrinth formed like a small house with illusions .. I don't know for sure, but I think the possibilities are high."

"I agree about that. But ... If this is a labyrinth, how are we going to get out? "

Norman felt around him, and found no hint. The only thing he found was another strange statue.

The three stopped walking and started staring at each other, before finally nodding simultaneously and starting to split up to check every single thing that was there.

The result, not so futile.

They did not find a way out, but they found a clue to create that path.

Everything was related to every statue they passed before.

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