Dungeon of Pride, Laplace

At the same time, it made sense why the [analysis] identified it as the fifth finger instead of its subordinate. Well in a way with Ozymandias dead it can be considered it's subordinate right?

Anyways, Simon was too tired from the events to think about anything else, so he let things be and decided that he would think over it later. Right now, he wanted to take a little break and catch his breath.

"With the sealing of the fifth finger, the fourth trail should be completed, right?" he spoke to himself.

From the corner of his eyes, he could see a teleportation circle being formed not far from him. If he guessed correctly that was the teleportation circle that would lead to the treasury where he would get his rewards, just like how it was on the third trail.

[Congratulations you have completed the fourth trial, Proceed towards the teleportation circle to receive you rewards].

He was right, it was the teleportation circle that would lead him to the treasure where the return transit rock was.

Simon did not directly leave for the teleportation circle and instead took some rest to recover some of his stamina and mana.

Right after clearing the third tomb, he had to experience the scene in historia and his encounter with the finger of Ozymandias, put a huge strain both mentally and physically on him.

If there was anything that he wanted badly right now, it would be some rest. However, Simon knew that it was not the right time and place to take a rest.

After taking a small break, he propped his body up, just as he did so, Simon noticed that he had kept the lid of the coffin open and fell into a conundrum.

This mausoleum was Yela's final resting place where she laid her life to protect the people of her empire. She in no way deserved her grave to be robbed and sacrilege by anyone like that and although Simon wanted to take this [S] tier crown away with him in hopes of restoring it one day, it was Yela's crown, her possession and something that she used to drive away a calamity from this world.

Although he knew that it was a waste to leave such a precious artefact with the dead, he still chose to keep the crown in the coffin lest he triggered some curse that would make the angered corpse of Yela, come after him.

Was he thinking too much? Well with how much curse energy this place was exposed to, was he too cautious to think that something like that might also happen?

In any case, nobody can accuse him for being a grave robber. Thus, Simon though a little unwilling still put the artefact back to where it belongs.

After that, he silently closed the lid back so that Yela could rest peacefully.

What about the monolith that had the intent of ozymandias? Of course, he was taking that with him. This was his spoil of war, something that he had achieved himself. Well, the crown aided him for the most part but he was the one that competed it, got all of its glittering jewels and went through all that struggle.

Besides, he could tell that the intent sealed inside the monolith was something special and if he could learn a thing or a two from it, it would become an incredible thing for him.

With how inquisitive his mind was, how could he just let it be? Deciding that he would take the intent to further research it, Simon stored it in his inventory.

He was just about to step foot in the teleportation circle leading to the treasury when he noticed the gigantic finger silently lying on the floor.

The hand of Ozymandias was so strong that it was able to devastate dozens of miles of land just from a simple movement.

Although the finger in front of him, was just a small part of the power of that hand, it was still so powerful that Simon felt goosebumps whenever he looked at it.

At a glance, the gigantic grey finger appeared so powerful that Simon reckoned even his [A] rank blade won't be able to make a scratch on it.

Now that the intent was removed from it, it became a powerful item without any master.

Seeing the dense amount of curse energy originating from it, he felt it was a little wasteful to just discard it here.

From this trial, Simon was aware of how powerful and beneficial the curse energy can be to him. Not only can it bolster his basic abilities by dozens of times, but it can also help him when he faced an enemy against whom he had no hopes of winning.

Looking at the finger, Simon fell into deep thought. Since the finger was not like your usual items or artefacts, it cannot be stored inside the inventory or the space ring.

If he wanted to take it away with him, he has to think of some other way.

As he was deliberating over how to take it with him, he involuntarily approached near the finger.

In the first place, why was it that he was able to store the intent in his inventory but not the finger? The finger if he generally put it, was a part of the corpse of the entity named Ozymandias, which was the reason why he was unable to store it inside his inventory.

If by that logic, shouldn't the intent should also be considered a part of Ozymandias? so then why?

As Simon mused over it, he arrived at a conclusion that it was because of the monolith that was covering the intent.

The complex layer of runes sealing the intent made it so that it was considered an item to the inventory. He who had designed the inventory knew how it worked and most of its inner details.

That is why, he could tell that it was because of the monolith that intent was recognised as an item.

This realisation brought him an idea as to how to bring back the finger with him.

If he can somehow just change the finger to be somehow recognised as an item, it wouldn't be a problem anymore to store it.

But the question was, how should he go on about doing it? he can't use the crown now because it was damaged and was just a showpiece now.

"If it needs to be a seal then…" As he thought over it for a while, Simon suddenly had this idea of using the philosopher's stone that Irene had given him.

The philosopher's stone was a mystical artefact that holds the ability to store any kind of magic for a long period of time. What's more, one can use the magic stored inside the stone without having to expend their own mana.

During this period of time he spent inside the forbidden trial, Simon was able to pry inside the Philosopher's tone and tell that the magic stored inside by Irene was a powerful Ice sealing magic.

Fundamentally, permafrost magic was different from the divine magic; however, if one compared the two elements purely in terms of having the ability to seal, Permafrost magic comes out on top.

Additionally, for some reason, Simon felt that the magic stored inside the philosopher's stone, wasn't just some advanced tier magic.

Although there was no guarantee that sealing the finger with ice magic would make the inventory recognise it as an item, it was worth a try.

Especially given that the item he would get in trade was this finger.

Deciding so, Simon took out the Philosopher's stone from his inventory.

A scarlet orb that radiated a powerful chilling aura, appeared on his hand. Using the Philosopher's stone, was simple, one just had to probe it with their mana.

"Frozen End Absolute Seal" the moment, Simon probed it with his mana and recited out the magic inside it, a bone chilling freezing energy that seemed as if it could freeze the entire world and bring ice age, erupted out from the philosopher's stone.

The magic inside the stone was so powerful that he had trouble controlling it somewhat. Nevertheless, once he directed it towards the gigantic finger at the middle of the room, he was able to relax a little seeing the two energies duke it out among themselves.

The curse energy inside the finger clashed fiercely with the magic that Irene had stored inside the philosopher's stone.

The stalemate lasted for a few seconds before the ice energy started holding absolute dominance as it froze the finger in a thick layer of ice along with the curse energy.

The Frozen End Absolute Seal magic created a coffin of ice around the finger that in a glance looked impossible to melt.

From the intensity of the magic Simon could tell that other than Irene, even the infernal magic bestowed by his sword, won't be able to melt this seal down.

Now that he was done sealing the finger, it was time to see if the inventory recognises it as an item or not.

To his delight, he was right about the loophole of his inventory, the finger was recognised as an item now and was easily stored inside.

Now that he was done taking all of the loots that rightfully belonged to him, he stepped on the teleportation circle and was teleported to someplace else.

Simon could have taken his loots and left without arranging the burial chamber, however, he did not choose to do so and left the room as it was before.

If Lucine was here, she would be amazed by his action once again. After all, the thing that had set the forbidden trials, was watching the challengers closely and every action and decision of theirs, did not go unnoticed by it.

Perhaps a few people in the world and those that have cleared one of the forbidden grounds, may know about it, but Simon was completely oblivious to it. He didn't know that every actions of his, had drastically changed the reward that he was set to get.