Traps? Turns Out I Was Doing It Wrong.

After reading the stele before him, Werther picked it up. The front of the stele was covered in writing, while the back bore a vast expanse of strange patterns.

That enormous pattern was the key to entering the forbidden land.

Werther did not even need to think about it. Of course he had to go take a look. If he did not, he would regret it for the rest of his life.

But when he looked at the rabbit before him, Werther hesitated. He was not afraid of danger, but he did not want to drag the rabbit into danger as well.

After Werther conveyed what he meant, the rabbit looked angry for the first time, hopping about in fury.

After one final exchange in sign language, Werther understood that it was impossible to make the rabbit wait for him on the ship or the island. The rabbit's meaning was simple: I want to go too.

It seemed that after spending some time with Werther, the rabbit had already come to see him as a friend—and its only friend at that.

Werther could only take the rabbit along helplessly. Seeing how excited the little fellow was, Werther felt that if he decided not to go now, the rabbit would probably be even more anxious than he was. It seemed to be an adventure-loving fellow too.

Werther and the rabbit arrived before the volcano and searched for quite a while before finally finding the location indicated by the stele.

Werther did not activate the mechanism right away, because he desperately needed to rest. The stele was simply too heavy. Even Werther, who had become superhumanly strong, was exhausted from carrying it.

Werther finally understood why the Poneglyph had remained undamaged for so long. With that kind of density, ordinary things in this world simply could not compare.

After resting for a while, Werther inserted the stele into the groove before him. Yet after waiting for a long time, there was no reaction at all.

Werther was a little dumbfounded. This was not how things were supposed to go. He pulled the stele back out and examined it, then suddenly thought, Damn, did I put it in backward? He turned it around and inserted it into the groove again.

The moment the stele was inserted, Werther suddenly felt the ground beneath his feet tremble. His heart leaped with joy. There was hope after all. He wondered what the forbidden land looked like as he waited for an entrance such as a stone gate or hidden passage to appear before him.

But even after waiting for a long time, Werther saw no such entrance. Instead, the trembling beneath his feet grew increasingly violent, and Werther suddenly had a very bad feeling.

He glanced at the rabbit. The rabbit glanced back at Werther, then gave him an adorably vacant smile, exposing its two large front teeth.

Just as Werther prayed that it would not be what he thought, Murphy's Law struck.

Massive cracks suddenly appeared across dozens of meters beneath Werther's feet. Then the ground vanished beneath him, and he fell into the huge hole that had just opened up. The instant he began falling, Werther grabbed the rabbit, preventing the two of them from being separated.

A few seconds into the fall, Werther realized things were bad. Below them was complete darkness, and he had no idea how deep the hole was. He cautiously activated his electromagnetic power and actually got a response. The walls of this massive shaft had to be iron, or at least contain a great deal of metal.

Werther immediately pulled himself onto the wall. The falling speed of him and the rabbit gradually slowed until they came to a stop.

He looked upward, then asked the rabbit for its opinion. The little fellow was very direct. It pointed downward and grinned, showing its big front teeth. The rabbit looked delighted, but to Werther, it just seemed adorably foolish.

Werther reduced the pull and began descending slowly. About a few minutes later, he finally reached the bottom.

There was no treasure or anything else at the bottom, only sharp metal spikes covering the ground. Every single one was a meter long.

Werther's face darkened as he thought to himself, Could this be a trap? But that did not seem right either. Who would go to such lengths to set up a trap this large just to harm someone they had never met?

Then he considered another possibility, though it was rather embarrassing. Werther's grasp of the ancient language was simply too poor. He had misunderstood some of the words and activated a mechanism.

And that was indeed the truth. Werther had translated "holy land" as "forbidden land."

Furthermore, the order and orientation in which the stele had to be placed, as well as the mechanism that needed to be activated after inserting it, had all been passed down orally by the ancient nation. Anyone who was not a descendant of that ancient nation could never have known. Two consecutive mistakes would trigger the defensive mechanism.

Werther, who had fallen into the trap, was not too disappointed, because he felt that the trap could not be far from the forbidden land.

He immediately drew both swords, activated Lightning Mode, and began destroying the iron walls around him, digging tunnels in an attempt to find the correct direction.

On his first attempt, Werther hacked away for a long time. Although he truly dug quite far, the direction was probably wrong, because the iron around them gradually turned into dirt.

He decisively abandoned that direction and began trying others.

Werther cleared the way in front while the rabbit helped him clear away the iron and dirt he had cut down behind him. One man and one rabbit began a full-blown tunneling project inside the trap.

Werther had forgotten which attempt it was. Just as he was about to give up, he suddenly discovered that the metal layer ahead had become difficult to cut through. This information did not discourage him. Instead, it excited him, because he knew he had found the right direction.

After Werther rested several times, he finally cut through the metal layer ahead.

Through the gap in the metal layer, Werther saw red light shining in. Until then, they had relied solely on Werther's lightning for illumination, making the red glow before them particularly striking.

Using all his strength, Werther sent the metal layer ahead flying with a single slash.

Before Werther appeared a vast space filled with densely packed steel pipes, with enormous machinery visible here and there.

As he entered the massive space, Werther knew this had to be the forbidden land indicated by the stele.

Werther took the lead, with the rabbit following behind him. If anything happened, Werther could block it, ensuring the rabbit would not face too much danger.

After exploring the huge space for a while, they found nothing particularly remarkable. However, they discovered a spacious passage leading who knew where, so they walked straight into it.

Since they had come this far, how could they possibly return just like that? At the very least, they had to explore the entire place. If they truly found nothing, then they could only blame their bad luck.

After walking through the broad passage for a while, two doors unexpectedly appeared ahead.

Werther studied the doors carefully for a while and discovered that they were probably not made of iron, but rather some special alloy he had never seen before.

Looking up, Werther saw that each alloy door bore a symbol above it. Above the first door was a plant, with a book beneath it bearing a cross symbol. Above the other door were a fist and a sword crossed together.

That was easy enough to understand. The first door probably contained medical knowledge or prescriptions of some kind, while Werther guessed the second door held something related to strength.

There was no need to think about it. Of course he would enter the second door.

Werther began studying how to enter it. After looking around, he found a passage written on the wall in ancient text, so he began the headache-inducing task of translating it. After a long while, he finally translated the following words.

People are always greedy.

A healthy body or supreme martial power? Sometimes, you can only choose one.

After opening the door, you will obtain one of them.

My descendants, do not covet everything. This is my final gift.

Without a second thought, Werther pushed open the second door. It slowly opened, while a rumbling sound came from within the first door. It seemed that the passage inside had already collapsed.

Ignoring the rumbling, Werther walked through the second door, the one marked with a crossed fist and sword.