I Conquer Hell and Heaven With 666 Trillion Coins

The valley had fallen strangely quiet after the enormous predator disappeared beneath the collapsed earth. For several seconds, the woman stood there, breathing heavily, surrounded by the remains of the battlefield.

Then something changed. Dean leaned forward from the couch he was sitting on.

"Wait," he asked.

Aphrodite glanced at him and asked, "What?"

"The symbols," he said. He saw those ancient symbols on one of the trees once more.

Among the trees, faint markings had begun to glow.

One was carved into a trunk several dozen meters away. Another was visible much farther into the forest. A third rested beside the river, almost hidden beneath hanging vines. They weren't grouped; they were scattered across the entire valley.

Dean narrowed his eyes.

"She has to find all of them, it seems," he said suddenly.

Humphrey gave a small nod.

"And remember them," Humphrey said after the nod.

Dean then understood how hard this puzzle...exam was. For him, this was harder than his own exam.

A roar suddenly shattered the silence.

"UURRAAAAGGGKK!!!"

Three smaller predators burst through the vegetation. The woman immediately sprinted toward the nearest tree.

She reached it, glanced at the ancient marking for barely two seconds, then continued running.

Behind her, claws tore through bark.

She ducked beneath a fallen trunk and glanced toward the next location.

She saw the second symbol while already memorising the first.

Dean leaned forward once more. He almost fell from the couch.

"She can't stop to study them. This is madness..." he said.

"She has to learn while moving," Aphrodite replied to his words. She looked at Dean once and smiled warmly.

"Yeah...and you are telling me this is easier than my puzzle," Dean said, looking back at her.

The second marking was a circle intersected by three lines.

She looked at it.

Once.

Then fled.

A predator lunged behind her, catching only the fabric at her back. She tore herself free and kept going.

The next tree stood beside a river.

A spiral had been carved into its trunk.

She stopped for barely a heartbeat.

Circle.

Three lines.

Spiral.

Then she looked at the pursuing creatures.

Her eyes shifted toward the river like she understood what was happening.

Dean smiled. He may not understand anything, but it still made him respect her more.

"She knows the terrain," he said and then realised the mistake he made.

"I mean she understands it," he added to his own words.

The woman jumped onto a fallen tree spanning the water while the predators followed her.

The log groaned beneath their combined weight, but she reached the opposite bank and jumped away.

A moment later, the trunk snapped.

One of the creatures fell into the river and was immediately carried downstream by the current.

She didn't waste a second.

Another roar echoed through the forest.

"TRRRRRKKKKKGrrrrr!!!"

It was a deep, filthy roar.

This time, the creature approaching her was considerably larger.

She ran toward the trees to find more glowing ancient symbols and understand everything and anything she could.

A fourth marking appeared.

A star surrounded by curved lines.

She glanced at it and then looked upward like she found an answer.

The stars above the valley were moving.

Not naturally, but their positions were changing into patterns.

Dean's expression shifted.

"They're connected," he said as he figured it out too.

Humphrey smiled.

"Now you're beginning to see it," the frog said, messing with him.

The woman seemed to reach the same conclusion. The markings weren't independent clues; they formed a larger pattern.

She looked from the tree to the sky, then toward the mountains surrounding the valley.

The answer was somewhere among all three. Unfortunately, she didn't have time to stand around contemplating it.

The predator charged at her as she ran away from it.

Another tree.

Another marking.

This one resembled a triangle with a line through its centre.

She memorised it and continued.

The creature behind her gained ground. Ahead lay a narrow canyon; she entered without hesitation.

"She wants it to follow," Dean said.

The passage was barely wide enough for the predator. The woman reached the other side and turned around.

The dinosaur suddenly stopped, looked at her, and then charged.

She stepped aside at the last possible moment. Its enormous body smashed into the canyon wall.

Stone cracked. The woman immediately noticed the weakness.

She kicked loose a section of rock. The damaged wall collapsed, and the predator vanished beneath the rubble.

Dean grinned. That woman was MAGNIFICENT.

Humphrey nodded.

"Again," he said.

She emerged from the other side and found another marked tree.

This symbol was more complicated. She studied it longer than the others. Her eyes moved between the shapes.

Circle.

Three lines.

Spiral.

Star.

Triangle.

Something about them bothered her. She had seen the pieces.

But she hadn't yet understood what they meant together.

A herd of massive herbivores thundered through the forest out of nowhere.

She jumped aside as one swept past. Another blocked her path. She ducked beneath its neck, rolled across the ground and came up beside a boulder.

Predator followed.

She climbed.

Predator jumped after her, and at the last moment, she kicked a loose stone beneath its foot.

It stumbled.

She used the opening to escape.

Dean chuckled.

"She isn't even trying to kill them anymore," he said, holding himself not to laugh out loud.

Aphrodite crossed her legs once more.

"She doesn't need to," she said.

The woman reached the centre of the valley. There, surrounded by five enormous trees, stood a strange stone formation.

Dean recognised the shapes immediately.

The markings.

All of them.

Each tree carried one. She had finally reached the place they had been pointing toward.

The first tree, the second, the third, the fourth and the fifth.

She touched them in sequence.

Nothing happened.

Dean frowned.

"Wrong order," he said. He could see the point of the symbols. It was the same as he did against the behemoth.

She stepped back.

Her eyes moved between the trees.

Then toward the sky. The stars were still shifting.

Their positions formed the same shapes she had seen throughout the examination. Dean's eyes widened.

"They correspond to the stars."

The woman looked upward, and then back at the trees.

She rearranged the sequence.

Fourth, first, third, fifth and lastly, second.

The trees began glowing.

Lines of light connected them, spreading across the ground until an enormous pattern appeared beneath her feet.

But one section remained dark.

She frowned.

"Something's missing," she said to herself, looking around.

The woman searched the area. She checked the surrounding trees.

Nothing.

Then she noticed the first trunk. Its bark had been badly damaged.

Probably a dinosaur hit it before she came here.

She approached and brushed away the broken pieces; a second marking was hidden beneath the damaged bark.

"There," she said to herself once more.

She had assumed each tree held one piece. That assumption had been the final trap.

The hidden symbol completed the sequence. She placed her hand against it.

Light exploded through the entire formation. Every marking she had discovered throughout the valley appeared above the trees.

One after another, they connected.

Circle.

Three lines.

Spiral.

Star.

Triangle.

The hidden symbol.

The pattern formed a gigantic ancient glyph. Words appeared across the sky.

[YOU HAVE SEEN THE PIECES.

NOW UNDERSTAND THE WHOLE.]

The woman closed her eyes.

She no longer needed to look at the symbols. She remembered them.

Every location, every shape, every connection.

She had been collecting fragments since the examination began, and now she finally understood what they formed.

Her eyes opened.

The glyph responded. A doorway appeared at the centre of the formation.

Then the valley erupted with roars. Every dinosaur turned toward her.

Dean's smile disappeared.

"Oh, shit!" he said.

Aphrodite laughed softly.

"One final challenge," she said.

The herd charged, and with that she ran.

Not mindlessly. She used everything she had learned.

The river became a barrier; the fallen trees became bridges and traps; the canyon became a choke point; and the cliffs became weapons.

Every part of the environment she had studied was now useful.

A predator charged from the left. She redirected it toward the river.

Another came from behind. She slipped between two trees and forced it into the narrow canyon.

The largest creature appeared ahead.

She sprinted toward the weakened cliff.

At the last moment, she changed direction.

The dinosaur predator followed.

Its weight shattered the unstable ground. It disappeared beneath another avalanche of stone.

The doorway was only a few meters away.

Three.

Two.

One.

A predator lunged, and she dropped beneath it.

The creature sailed overhead as she rolled forward and slammed her hand against the ancient doorway.

The glyph erupted with light.

Everything disappeared.

The valley.

The dinosaurs.

The mountains.

The trees.

The examination screen went completely white.

Then a single message appeared.

[EXAMINATION COMPLETE.]

Silence filled the viewing room. Dean slowly leaned back.

For several seconds, he said nothing. Then he smiled.

"That was actually fucking brilliant."

He couldn't say anything but this to her.

Humphrey's eyes gleamed.

"She solved the puzzle while the puzzle itself attempted to kill her," the frog said.

Humphrey tapped his cane against the floor.

"Precisely," he added to his words.

Dean thought about it for a moment.

Every part of the examination had been connected.

The terrain wasn't merely scenery. The dinosaurs weren't simply enemies. The trees weren't simply hiding symbols. Even the damage the creatures caused had become part of the solution.

The examination had forced her to observe, remember, adapt and finally connect everything she had learned.

Dean smiled.

"That's a proper examination."

Humphrey gave a pleased little chuckle.

"Now you understand why this dungeon has such a reputation, my dear fellow."

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