"Like this, again—this time, steady your breathing!"
Shouted Zyra, sitting on a thick log, watching me slash at the tree.
The Shadow Forest trees weren't normal. They were as hard as steel, absorbing mana like sponges.
I spent a full day and barely made a mark. Sighing, I dropped my sword, soaked in blood.
"Let me heal that," said Zyra, moving to my side and grabbing my hand. He forced his mana to act like a light-based spell.
It was super weak, only 0.1% of the original spell's power—but...
Because this guy's mana reserve was basically an ocean, it somehow worked. Clenching my hands, I looked at Zyra's face.
"I'm ready now. Let's go to the pit," he said. "Are you sure I won't help you if you—"
I shot him a look. "Don't worry. I'll get out of the pit without your help."
He smiled slowly. "Follow me, then." He started walking toward the edge of the area.
Reaching the pit, we stopped. "Look at my masterpiece. I spent a lot of time choosing good monsters for you," he said.
"Each one is a rare D-rank monster—venom, attack patterns, everything. Perfect for training."
I looked into the abyss-like hole. The sounds of monsters, eerie and low, made my skin tingle.
He placed a hand on my shoulder and slowly swept his mana around me, healing all my injuries.
"Now you're in top shape. You can probably fight. But let me tell you a trick," he leaned down, whispering into my ear with a serious voice.
"When you're alone in the darkness, slash following your heart."
I cringed.
"Hey, you know, I had the same reaction when my master told me that," he said, glancing down at the pit.
"Good luck, boy," Zyra said, then walked away.
I took five minutes to gather my courage and jumped. Darkness engulfed me.
And weirdly enough—it was completely silent.
I gripped my sword hilt tightly. Only me. Only my ragged breathing.
Screech!
A monster leapt at me. I jumped back instinctively and slashed at its previous position.
The sound of tearing flesh confirmed I'd landed a solid hit. The creature retreated slightly, growling low.
I assumed my practiced stance, sword snapped back, arms tense.
The moment I heard a sound, I slashed in its direction. Slowly, a circle of fallen monsters formed around me.
My legs shook. My body ached. Sweat poured.
I lifted my head toward the sky. It was time for Zyra to pull me up.
As much as I hated asking for help, there was no way I'd make it out alone.
"Hey, how are you hanging there?" Zyra's head popped up from above.
Speaking of the devil. "Man, I need some help here."
"Sure," he said. Blue mana lit the pit. The monsters scattered. Zyra flashed next to me.
"You look in better shape than I thought," he nudged me with a smile. "Speaking of your first day in the pit, I prepared a banquet." His eyes squinted.
"Good, because I'm famished," I said, trying to silence the growls of my stomach.
As we climbed out, I froze. A hill-sized behemoth lay dead on the ground.
"Damn… isn't this supposed to be a mid-game boss?"
I turned to him. "What is this?"
"What do you mean? This is our banquet. Now help me slice this big guy up."
After an hour of blood-soaked work, we finally pulled out the meat.
Zyra went to a small hut for a frying pan. I was in charge of cooking; he handled cleaning.
Sizzles!
I fried the S-rank meat of the monster that had forced me to strategize for twelve hours in my previous life.
Then I made the sauce perfectly, balancing salt and sugar.
Everything felt almost in it place, clean, simple, quiet.
I plated two portions, Zyra still searching the hut for something. As I set the plates on a log we'd made into a table, he appeared with a dangling bottle of wine.
Great.
We ate under the starry sky. I had underestimated Zyra's hunger; my portions weren't even close.
He needed six just to quell the beast in his belly temporarily. After that, we finished eating.
Rubbing my eyes, I asked, "Hey… where do we sleep?"
He gestured to the ground and dropped down, snoring like a corpse.
I cringed and sat on a stone, lifting my head. The night sky here was different, too many stars. Breathing the cold air, I slowly drifted to sleep.
Buzzing sounds jolted me awake. Zyra's eyes were slightly red.
"I must have slept longer than I thought…" I murmured.
The area was circled by a mana barrier, S-rank monsters dead beside it.
I remembered.
My idiot self had wandered into an S-rank danger zone, the kind where a single mob could raze a city and slept like a baby.
Then my eyes fell on Zyra, sitting there casually.
And this monster Zyra… the one who kept that barrier up and killed everything in eight hours?