Chương 331: I Am Totally Harmless

The people who were dragged into this final trial together argued for quite a while about what the best course of action was. Their predicament was a difficult one to tackle, but I found it quite ridiculous how they could just speak needlessly when none of them actually had a clue what any of the escape methods were about.

Although nightmare trials weren't truly fair, they nonetheless were never fully unbeatable, so the escape methods available to my prey would probably not only be quite obvious but also certainly come accompanied by a handy little guide on what they needed to do to actually complete them. … But I guess, complaining about it was a better use of their time, somehow. They did eventually stop spouting useless nonsense, but their attempt at being rational wasn't much better.

"Shouldn't we participate…?"

"Shhh… Just let them tire themselves" I physically pushed the blind man's lower jaw up with a single finger, using this occasion to establish physical contact to let Nara try to figure out a way to hijack his basic system–Unfortunately, one of the louder babblers seemed to finally notice our existence.

"What about you two? What do you think we should do?" I turned my head to look him in the eyes of the horned man who was speaking to me. Whether he was a demon or a beastfolk actually wasn't clear at a glance, but he had been quite good at saying a lot of useless words. I felt that these people did want to escape, but they were too scared to leave this area, which they considered to be a safe place.

It seems like most of them actually know that there is at least one monster roaming the ship but refrain from mentioning it so that someone else who doesn't know would be willing to go out and open the way for an escape route. What a bunch of little scheming bastards… With attitudes like this, there is little doubt that this final trial will leave no survivors.

There is a reason why certain final trials include several people, and it's for the very simple reason that the trial is expected to require some sort of teamwork to be completed. Naturally, if the team doesn't act like one, then the difficulty of the trial will seem several times higher than what it truly is… Anyway, time to stop thinking really fast and actually answer his question.

"Well, we don't know anything about what our supposed escape routes look like, do we? But I believe that there are three options which are likely… One option would be to find… Jolly Boats, I think they are called? Anyway, there are probably small boats intended to escape a ship like this one" Someone seemed like they wanted to push back against this idea, but I just continued speaking.

"Another option would be to leave by air. I remember hearing that the daredevils who still try to make nautical travel through the vast expanse of the ocean a thing will often have a hot-air balloon at the ready or something that achieves a similar result so that they can escape once their ship is predictably targeted by sea monsters" This idea seems to be more agreeable to them, so I went on with my third idea.

"Lastly, since this ship is made of steel and seems equipped with all kinds of machines created by mechanistry, then it stands to reason that it probably has some method to communicate… Perhaps inside this very structure, there is something that we can use to call for some help and have another ship come to rescue us" I concluded my little speech with this and left my interlocutors thinking about it. Of course, I had made all of this the hell up.

I have no idea if any of what I said is even remotely true, but I said it very confidently, and I am a very attractive woman, so most of them were already convinced–Isn't that just great? My third idea in particular was the most popular, on account that it was the one that involved not having to leave this 'safe' zone, and thus was the least risky of them all–Or so they seemed to think. I don't remember implying that it would be as easy as finding the communications machine and pressing a button.

In fact, I would have assumed that everyone would have realised that any escape method would require some work to be achievable. This is a damned nightmare trial. Didn't they all go through at least dozens of nightmares on their own before getting here? I only shoved them into the empty trial when they were about to enter the pre-final trial, not before that.

I took the blind man with me as everyone decided to go up to the second floor of this place, where the commands for the ship were predictably located–Now that I think about it, the goal of this nightmare was slightly unclear in certain areas, it was simply to escape, but it didn't say to escape from the ship specifically, so could the ship itself be manned and taken to a safe spot? Would that count, even if there were monsters onboard? Well, it's for the actual victims to figure out.

Regardless of what is true, I won't let them make any sort of progress on my watch. This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

"Hey, there's some sort of instruction book here…"

"Ah shit, we need specific parts and tools to fix this thing, but just as she said, this is indeed a communication device that we could use to call for help… I suppose this is better than nothing.

Even if we have to venture out, it is best to return to this safe area to build the thing, rather than have to do it somewhere anything could potentially be roaming" They all agreed that this was the best course of action, and then proceeded to argue as to who should actually put themselves in danger and go outside to look for everything that was needed. The tools needed for the job were located in unknown locations, but the parts required were mentioned in the book.

One just needed to find a map to go alongside so that they would know where the storage rooms actually were. Of course, with my otherworldly charm and the fact that I had clearly decided to look after a frail blind boy, no one bothered to ask if I should go out to search–In general, most of the women present weren't really expected to have to take risks. … Except the two-meter-tall orc woman, of course. Not only was she probably the strongest person here after me, but she was more than willing to go out.

She was definitely sapient, but her attitude told me that she was part of one of those tribes that thought fighting power was all that mattered in the world. She was already out of here within minutes, leaving everyone else to awkwardly sit around and do nothing. It would definitely be more efficient for several people to go out and split up, but few people here were actually willing to put their lives on the line. Perhaps I should change this?

Everyone had returned to the lower floor since the walls seemed thicker down there, and the lack of windows meant that they weren't visible from the outside to any monsters. Though that pretty much nullified the fact that they were surrounded by empty space that could easily be kept watch of. But I wasn't going to complain. It worked perfectly well for me. I had noticed that on the floor above, there was actually a bedroom tucked away behind a steel door.

It was probably meant to be the captain's private quarters, right next to the command, so that they would be able to be present swiftly if there was an emergency.

"Why don't you lie down for a while? All this walking must have tired you out" I casually grabbed the blind man's arm, using him as an excuse to go up the stairs as everyone else just stared. I even heard someone mutter something to themselves.

"... Lucky bastard…" This reaction was perfect, since I wanted them to believe that I would be staying up there as well.

"Mmh… Miss…? I don't really feel that tired…"

"Shhh… Just lie down, will you? It can't do any harm, and besides… It's not like anyone here can actually do anything, so you might as well just wait things out" With how weak he was compared to me, he couldn't resist at all as I put him to bed, wrapped him up in blankets, and then proceeded to lock the steel door and even pull a curtain on the round-glass opening on the door. If anyone else came, they could definitely misinterpret the situation and not even suspect that I was actually gone.

Indeed, this room had a window from which I could make my escape. I silently opened it as the blind man tried to speak to me, but I just shushed him and said that I was going to be sleeping as well, and to not bother me. Then, I simply left. I landed on the ground without any problem and quickly ran off, my head slightly split open, twitching slightly as I tried to smell where the orc had gone.

The sense of smell of this sub-form wasn't as developed as I would have expected, but it was still developed enough to help me since the orc actually had quite a strong and distinct body odour. … A regular person with a sharp nose probably would have been able to track her down as well. Damn, she really just took off running, huh? I bet she's more interested in finding a monster to fight than in actually collecting the required items.

It didn't take too long for me to find her again, on account of the huge commotion she was causing down below the deck. Either she had gotten lucky, or she was just too loud, but she had already run into a wandering monster. This one was different from the mass of skin I had encountered earlier. It was an indistinct, incredibly skinny creature with red skin and random patches of brown fur.

It stood on its hind legs despite clearly being more comfortable on all fours, and was currently clawing and gnarling at the orc.

"Here I thought these nightmares got more and more difficult as time went on! You're fucking weak! Nowhere near as strong as that horrid thing from the previous trials!" The orc grabbed the creature and proceeded to stretch it out until it split in half, sending blood and guts everywhere… The 'horrid thing' was probably the Cauchemar Beast that acted on its own. It was indeed strong, but quite dumb and forgetful. If someone went out of its sight for about ten seconds, it would just forget about them.

It varied across nightmare trials, but it was usually not very difficult to avoid as long as one stayed calm and recognised that they were dealing with a creature of limited intellect. Of course, considering the behaviour of this orc, she had definitely tried to fight it at least once head-on. Heh… I guess her strength is purely physical and not related to energy augmentation, so I suppose that the earlier trials were a breeze for her, as these nightmares only rarely limited a person's base physical might.

The tusked woman stared at the corpse of the monster for a few moments before shaking her head, evidently disappointed. Unfortunately, while the nightmare entities were all subservient to me, I didn't have a way to gather them up and tire the orc out. So I simply continued to follow her from a distance, until she actually ran straight into the many-armed skin-blob. Once again, this woman just ran around without a care, and with the mass of muscles she carried, her careless steps were indeed quite loud.

So there was nothing weird about a monster getting in her way. This guy could probably hear her the entire time. Well… Let's see how she deals with this guy–And then we'll see how she deals with surprise attacks. Mmh… Her soul would probably be quite empowering for Elowen or Rose, wouldn't it?