Faust was lying on the ground when he heard footsteps approaching. He rolled and stood up swiftly, activating a healing rune at the same time.
In an instant, he was back on guard. From between the dark, towering trees, Arien revealed herself.
His expression showed a flicker of confusion, but he didn't lower his guard. He had no reason to trust her.
"What do you want?" he asked, stepping back, increasing the distance in case she decided to attack.
At the very least, this way, he'd have some time to recover while the healing rune took effect.
Arien took a step forward. "Why did you kill him?"
Faust continued to retreat. "He stole my prey, That's all… How did you find me?"
She looked at him with a faint smile. "Heh, you were making too much noise."
"I guess I was…"
He didn't feel she was being aggressive or particularly dangerous, but he couldn't let his guard down in a situation like this. During the third trial, even if he had remained cautious, the environment was more controlled—they needed him there. The odds of being attacked were low.
Now, though, things were different. Finding another participant could mean death, whether out of competition or greed. As his mind wandered through these possibilities, her voice grounded him again.
"What are those things you used on the sword?" Arien asked, referring to the rune papers he had applied earlier.
Faust hesitated. He hadn't told anyone about the rune papers… only those who had died by his hand had seen them. During the battle at the Soul Tree in the second trial, he'd used them in the open, but no one seemed to take notice.
So Arien asking about them could mean a few things. Maybe she didn't recognize the runes and just saw glowing paper. Maybe she did see the runes and wanted to test him. He made his decision in the span of a single breath and replied on the next:
"I found these papers on a participant I killed during the second trial. I tested them and found they could explode."
A simple lie. One she couldn't easily verify. If she knew what runes were, she could assume he'd gotten them elsewhere. Faust wasn't a master of deception, but by now, he could estimate a person's thoughts well enough.
Arien looked at him, then at the ruined camp. "Oh, alright. Anyway, do you need help… tightening things around here?"
Faust gave her a sharp look and answered plainly, "No."
"Eh, why not?"
"Because I said so."
"But why did you say so?"
"…I'm not playing that game. Just leave already."
"I don't want to. What will you do, kill me too? Hehe."
She said it jokingly... but the possibility crossed Faust's mind. He didn't know if he should let her live or not.
Based on all his past experiences, leaving people alive usually wasn't the wisest choice. And more than that—he had come to realize something else. Killing was starting to feel natural. He never did it without reason, but with each death, it felt easier… smoother… instinctive.
He thought about that sometimes—why did it feel so easy?
The first time he saw a corpse, he nearly vomited. The second time, he felt hollow. But the third time, when it was him that had killed, he felt no guilt. Only silence.
It was strange. As if he had killed hundreds in lives he no longer remembered. As if the act itself was etched into him long before he ever held a sword.
Faust locked eyes with Arien. "Why do you bother me?"
"Stop being so edgy. I'm not bothering you. I just want to go along with you. You've never had friends before?"
Faust was caught off guard. "Friends?" he repeated, the word tasting strange in his mouth. His thoughts drifted to the past. "Since when did we become friends? Pretty sure we tried to kill each other the first time we met…"
"That was back then. It was because of the trial. There's no reason for us to kill each other now, is there?"
"…"
"I can help you rebuild the camp and hunt those mantis things. You've fought me—you know I'm not weaker than you."
Faust paused, weighing her words. She could help me… that much is true. But I still don't trust her. And with her around, I can't use the runes. She'll find it suspicious if I knew how to use something I said I just found.
If I send her away, she'll probably spy on me from a distance anyway… just as much trouble.
Maybe we could hunt a Slasher with just our weapons… it's been a while since I've fought that way. Still, I'll take some runes, just in case. I also need another journal, this one's nearly full. Setting traps here is also a good idea. I can't rely on one method of fighting forever. And the Devour Rune… I've been improving. It's almost perfect now, in two months or so I guess I will finally be able to use it.
"When we hunt one," he finally said, "we go our own ways after that."
"Alrighty. Let's find some of those mantis things."
"Slashers. Let's call them that."
"Hm. Okay. Slashers." she replied.
"Help me rebuild the camp, then. Like you said. After that, we lay traps and—"
"What are these holes in the ground?" Arien interrupted, noticing the crater-like marks from the earlier explosions. She had arrived after it all.
"The papers I told you about. I still have a few left."
"Ah, yeah. Alright, let's get to work."
"Sure." he replied in a cold tone.
They got to work rebuilding the camp. Faust kept his guard up against her. No matter how friendly she acted, he wasn't able to trust her enough to lower his guard.
******
Under the same red moon, Maya was fighting alone against three Slashers that stood just under two meters tall.
Her pale blonde hair glistened under the crimson light, and her deep blue eyes contrasted starkly against it. As the three creatures charged toward her, she leapt high into the air and conjured a green platform beneath her feet.
The monsters couldn't reach her. She aimed downward and began launching green air disks at them one after another.
They quickly realized her strategy and tried to escape, but she simply hovered above, trailing them from the sky and cutting them down with relentless precision. She closed her eyes briefly, observing three glowing circles spinning around her heart.
I'm close to reaching the limit. I need to finish this dungeon before it happens.
Eventually, the creatures were torn apart. As she descended, a dense fog enveloped her. When it cleared, she found herself in a different part of the forest, though the scenery remained eerily similar. The crimson moon above glowed just a little brighter—barely noticeable, but there.
Then, a voice echoed in her mind:
"Slay one of your kind."
She bit her tongue in frustration. So it's true after all… Why do these trials always demand we kill each other? Why must the numbers be trimmed so drastically?
Based on her estimations, there were likely around fifty to sixty participants left in this place, including those who returned after using their chance to leave. I need to be cautious of those who've reached the eighth trial, she thought.
Her mind drifted to an old memory—an aged man, one of her professors. His tone was firm but warm, his hair white and face clean-shaven. He had taught her about this dungeon before she ever set foot in it.
The earlier trials—from the first through the fourth—each took place in different locations. But from the fifth trial onward, all occurred within the same shared area: this area beneath the crimson moon. She wasn't sure how it worked exactly, but she suspected the trial castles were somehow connected to form this vast "mega-trial floor," a layered challenge where four trials played out in a single region.
She knew nothing about the ninth trial; no one had ever reported its contents. But the eighth trial had been documented—barely. It was unique: each participant was given a different task. Most of them were extremely difficult, and some seemed outright impossible.
She belonged to the Galeborn family, a noble family of mostly wind magic users. A member of her bloodline had once reached the eighth trial and used his chance to return briefly. His assigned task had been: "Kill the light."No one knew what that meant, and he was pulled back into the trial before he could find out. Maya wasn't sure if he was still alive or had already perished in the merciless enviroment.
The first explorers to survive until the eighth trial described the moon as faintly red at the time. But as more participants arrived, they noticed the glow become stronger, as more participants passed the fifth trial and above, the glow of the moon grew gradually stronger. These reports started to happen close to the start of the dungeon, around two years ago.
Maya had always been a seeker of truth, of knowledge and mana. With multiple thoughts flying and ringing in her head, she began wandering through the forest.
I need to find someone I can kill to pass the trial.