Divine Luck: SSS-Rank Battle Maid Harem

Zach looked at the door in front of him. It was the door to a small house with only one room and no windows. Unlike the other shack or storage-like units he had found, it looked incredibly stable.

More importantly, it was the first building Zach had seen that had a door.

It was a wooden door with two metal bars across it horizontally, one in the middle of the upper half, and the other in the middle of the lower half.

It was a sturdy door. But, normally, if none of the other doors or windows in the underwater city had lasted until now, neither should this one have. There had to be something special about it.

"Is it really this easy?" Zach voiced his thoughts.

Less than an hour had passed since he first considered trying to survive the dome's collapse by using his Blessed Defense. That meant there were fewer than twenty-two hours left until the dome collapsed. However, it seemed Zach had already found a way to survive when the water would come crashing down.

"But…"

There was just one problem.

"...Where's the handle?"

There was a door but no way to open said door.

Zach tried pushing it open or pinching the metal bars to drag it open, but it didn't budge. It didn't feel like a door that was supposed to move. It was the perfect defense against an ocean of water crashing down. It was also the perfect defense against a home intruder like Zach.

With a frown and his familiars' help, Zach inspected the house's outside from top to bottom. The blocks of stone that made the walls, the line of bricks along the ground, the slabs on the roof, and the pillars in the corners–none of them went untouched, untasted, unsmelled, and unassaulted.

Zach did things to the door and the house that he wouldn't even do to monsters. He got a little caught up in solving the mystery.

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"...What are you doing?"

Zach turned around at the familiar voice and found Black standing below the house in front of the door. Black looked up at him as he straddled the roof while leaning down and tasting the stone again. For a place that didn't seem to have any wind or cleaners, the stones were surprisingly free of dust.

"...Looking for a way in. You?"

"Can't you just open the door?" Black didn't answer Zach's question. Instead, he pointed at the door while looking at Zach like he was crazy.

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"Try it." Zach encouraged Black to open it. He looked forward to the expression Black would make and the awkwardness when he realized it wasn't that easy.

With a raised eyebrow, Black put his hand against the door and pushed. Since Zach had said it like that, he was expecting some resistance, and he put some weight behind his push.

In a way, Zach got what he wanted. He got to see Black embarrass himself, but not in the way he wanted.

The door swung open so easily that Black stumbled forward half a step.

Zach's smug expression froze and slipped off his face as he looked down at Black. After a moment, he scrambled to the edge of the roof and looked down at Black, who was looking at the blue, see-through window in front of him.

"...Requirements met…Don't be the first to touch this door…" Black slowly read the message out loud before looking up and meeting Zach's eyes.

"Wasn't that hard." Black shrugged before entering the house and closing the door behind him.

Zach was frozen in place, looking at the closed door hanging upside down from the roof.

After several minutes he let go and flipped over down to the ground. He knocked on the door.

"Hey, I helped you. Let me in."

"Sorry, can't hear you through the door. Besides, it says this place can only protect one person."

Zach pounded on the door twice before spitting at the ground in front of it.

Even if they could, having Yanael or Alzara break the door down would defeat the purpose of entering since the door would no longer be able to defend against the dome's collapse.

Zach clicked his tongue and pouted as he walked away. Wasting time by the door was unnecessary. He had to continue looking.

He couldn't believe he had helped such an ungrateful type. He would show him.

In the end, Alzara had been right. Things hadn't been that simple. It wasn't just about finding a way to survive. However, it did mean that finding a way to survive wasn't the only thing that mattered. Requirements had to be fulfilled.

But it also increased the odds that his plan to survive using his barriers would work. Since things weren't as clearcut as the initial message led them to believe, there shouldn't be anything stopping him from doing that.

Of course, that could just be Zach's delusions talking. The hidden meanings and intentions in the message and the Trial could just also mean that there was even less of a chance that his barriers would work.

Whatever the case, the situation wasn't too good for Zach. Still, it took him at least twenty strides to blame his luck for the situation with the door and Black. It was almost an improvement when compared to how he had been in the past.

Or it was a degeneration of his memory.

Refusing to think about it any further, Zach continued walking through the winding streets of Haya, the underwater city with no care or thought for direction and streets already passed.

Eventually, he found another door. This one, he didn't touch immediately. Once burnt, twice shy.

He was going to wait or make noise until someone else came that could try the door for him. Before too long, one of the other entrants, a young lady Zach remembered as Sarah showed up.

After a quick chat, she skeptically put her hand against the door. She had her doubts. But doing something was better than nothing. She pushed.