Chapter 15

Every time the fire starts to get bigger Gin would immediately put it out using dirt. He kept doing this using his magic but the longer he uses the faster his mana will deplete.

"I can't keep putting out this fire anymore Catori," he said

Catori just finished killing all the remaining monsters in the area which made the Orc Shaman more furious.

AaaaaaarkkkkKkkkk!

It screamed and waved his staff that made the fire surrounding them grew larger.

"Shoot! I can't put out this massive fire either and it's starting to get hot. If we can't get out we'll be toast" Gin starts to panic but when he looks at Catori, the woman was still calm as ever. The white shirt she wore, the usual, was bloodsoaked and Gin lose count of all the monsters she killed compared to his. Catori looks at him with her silver eyes and made him calm as well.

[How can I panic in this situation if you're looking at me with those innocent eyes] Gin thought

"Can you make a way for me to get out of this fire?" She asked him

Gin looks at the Shaman "I can throw you to him"

Catori smiled "Well, that's fine"

With the little mana left in him, Gin bangs his staff to the ground and the soil where Catori was standing rises. It was only for a few seconds but it was enough to throw her towards the Orc Shaman. When they finally faced each other the fire also disappeared. Gin gave out a sigh of relief because he no longer has mana left, all he can do is pray that Catori can defeat that monster.

The Orc Shaman was surprised to see Catori that it stopped waving his staff. Catori readied herself, her feet apart while holding on to her daggers. The Orc Shaman mocked her by laughing at her face, still the indifferent Catori gave nothing in response and it made him angry. He waves his staff and an array of fire goes directly towards her. At the same time, Catori also made her move, she charges herself to the Orc Shaman and the monster instantly built a wall of fire, the creature laughs again and when it looks in front of him she was not there anymore.

Hyukkk!??

In defensive mode, he grew the wall even larger surrounding him and started spewing small explosives around the area.

BoOooom! BooOm!

The explosion echoes across the room and Gin starts to get worried.

"No! He must stop that or else this dungeon will crumble down!" Gin yelled

"Catori! Kill him now!"

The Orc Shaman continued his defensive attack and laughed harder but his happiness ended when he looks up and saw a figure of a woman above him. He chanted to counter-attack but it was too late, Catori landed on his face. Furious the Orc Shaman tried to hit her with his staff but Catori just slapped it back to him, she raises both her arms holding the daggers and that's when the creature began fearing for his life.

HyuuuuuuK! HyuuUuUuuuk!

Its' screeches can be heard from the entire dungeon and the moment he stared into Catori's eyes to beg he became silent. The last thing he saw was both daggers aiming forward to his throat and --- he no longer breaths.

While witnessing the battle Gin was in a state of shock. [Why does she looks so innocent and kills with no mercy?] He thought, but there was something else that surprises him. It was only for a short while but he saw it, when Catori was swiftly running towards the Orc Shaman and jumped as high as the firewall he saw a figure of someone behind her. It was blurry but he could tell it was a shadow fighting alongside her.

Gin kept staring above and just like that Catori beheaded the Orc Shaman, his stomach began to hurl and he wanted to look away but he couldn't because the shadow behind Catori starts to get clearer as she slowly goes down the high stone towards him. He felt an incredible amount of mana from that thing and it gave him chills. He held his staff tighter as the thought of that thing was a monster in disguise when he suddenly heard someone behind him.

"Gin? Why are you here?" A voice calls out and when he turns around he sees Cain, Caleb, and Linden.

----

Linden pukes behind Caleb at the sight of the Orc Shaman's head. Cain and Caleb did not seem to be disgusted but instead were surprised to see Catori.

"Is that the Orc Shaman's head?" Cain asked

Catori looks at Gin tilting her head confused.

"Ah! They just got here..." Gin explained

Catori looks at Cain again and nodded.

"Wow! That's so cool! How did you defeat it!?" Feeling excited Caleb approaches her

"W-we just did" she responded

Cain and Caleb seems to understand the situation "Well, it's okay if you guys won't tell, I mean we don't want you telling your techniques and all"

"Ah, sorry, I did not mean that - it's just I find it uncomfortable talking about it seeing Linden over there vomiting," said Catori

Linden, "Wh-what!? So it's my fault now? How dare you present that filthy head in front of us!"

"I'm sorry, it's just that the ribbon was tied tightly to its head so I had to cut it"

Linden pukes again.

"Hahaha, never mind him but how many ribbons did you guys get and what color was tied to that thing?" He pointed to the Orc Shaman's head.

Catori lifted the Orc Shaman's head and saw a white ribbon tied to its neck. "It's white"

Caleb, "So you guys killed the only monster with a different color, Sir Royce said it might equivalent to Zero or more" he looked around them "How about the dead ones?"

Gin looked at them disappointingly "Well aside from the two hobgoblins we defeated at the entrance it seems most of these monsters doesn't have ribbons attached to them and the ones who have ribbons were green ones only..."

Everyone was quiet for a while when Cain breaks the silence "Well, let's just hope that white ribbon is worth it and the only way to find out is to get out of this dungeon"

"Right and besides, I'm sure the nobles had been watching you guys battle outside so the ribbons doesn't matter"

Gin nodded "Thanks"

"So get that stupid ribbon and throw that head, it stinks!" Linden shouts

Catori did what she was told. The five of them decided to go out together, Gin and Catori spent the remaining minutes going over the corpses in search of ribbons and just as exactly Gin said - there were only a few. The three boys were looking at them from afar "Hey, do you think this part of the dungeon sounds suspicious to you?" Cain asked Caleb

Caleb nodded "They have defeated more monsters than we have but compared to us, all the monsters we killed had ribbons attached to them"

"Yeah, it seems someone is trying to sabotage them"

Caleb, "Well, who cares anyway, Sir Royce hated both of them so I'm not surprised if he's the one behind this"

"Yeah" Cain agreed while Linden was listening to their conversation and looks at Catori and Gin who were still searching for ribbons.

Ten minutes left till the final exam will end, the five of them starts going to the exit. Caleb was right the exit was just straight ahead, Linden finally felt like he could cry from joy.

"Hey" Catori tapped Gin's shoulder

Gin looks at her and she gave him the ribbon.

"You can have this"

Surprised Gin moves away, "N-no! You should have that because you're the one who killed it"

"But I would not have defeated it if you had not threw me"

Gin went silent and his face became flat "You kidding me right?"

Catori nodded and grabs his hands and put the ribbon on top "Besides, you need this more than I do right now"

"The King may have recommended you but it's possible he won't vouch for you at the end of this test, you already flunk two you know"

Catori was lost in her thought for a while then with an eager look she faced him "It doesn't matter"

[What the hell is this woman babbling about? Does she even know that if the King won't vouch for her, she will be executed as planned?] Gin thought holding the white ribbon [But if this ribbon is not worth zero then...I can have a chance]

----

Throughout the entire test, Royce was smiling from ear to ear getting extremely excited.

[Any moment now and this test will be over, those two will surely fail] he grinned even more [...and to think that killer woman purposely flunk the first two test, that King will never vouch for her if he doesn't want to humiliate himself]

The entire crowd was cheering once again when they saw the trainees came out of the portal.

"Phew! That was fun! Hahahaha!" Adam cheered while dragging an unconscious Albert

Royce faced was appalled when he saw Albert "W-what happened to him!?"

Adam with his huge figure looks down and noticed Royce "We don't know, we just found him unconscious when were looking for the exit"

[Who could have done this to him!? My champion!] He thought and that's when he saw Gin and Catori came out of the portal together with Cain, Caleb, and Linden.

"You!" He rushed towards them

"You did that to him!" He yelled

Confused, Gin and Catori looks at Albert "I don't know what you're talking about" said Gin

"Liar!!! We were all watching him on the screen and he was fine just a moment ago, you must have done something while looking for the exit!"

"Whoa, how can it be when we are the first ones to come out?" Adam bluntly answered

"I-I don't know what kind of trick that trickster did but I'm sure he was the one responsible! And his conspiring with that murderer!"

Gin almost threw him a punch when Akio goes down from his chair. "Mind if I take a look at Sir Albert's condition?"

Royce, "Yes! By all means!"

Akio only examined Albert for a moment then gave a confident smirk.

"I see," he said and went back to his seat

"W-wait, did you found out what happened to him?" Royce asked

Akio, "Don't worry... You'll find out soon. Look, he's waking up now"

"U-uuhn" Albert groaned

"Albert! Thank the heavens you're okay!" Royce said relieved

Surprised to see himself at the center of the Arena together with the others, Albert gasped "H-how!?" He gets up and Royce assisted him

"What happened to you? Did that Gin-"

"Let's not waste our time and evaluate the last test shall we?" Akio interrupted him

[What's the problem with this guy!?] Royce gave him a piercing look.

Clap! Clap!

"Now! That the third test is over, can all trainees present their ribbons altogether?" Freda stood up and announces to the crowd

The people started cheering again and the nobles nodded in agreement.

"Right! So trainees please do so!" Said Emilio

All trainees lined horizontally at the center, Albert who was still a bit wobbly angrily shoved Royce at the back as he comes forth and one by one presented their ribbons. The crowd cheers louder when they saw Adam and Ann's ribbons. They have gathered a lot of red and blue ribbons and a few greens

Lilith and Dorothy presented their ribbons equally as them.

Linden did not present any so the crowd gave him a booing sound.

"I believe we don't need your explanation anymore Sir Linden, as you can see we were watching you on the screens above," said Ren

Linded nodded

Cain and Caleb presented theirs as well it was not the same as the first two pairs but everyone saw how few monsters they fought and they did not leave one behind so the crowd still cheered for them.

When it was Catori and Gin's turn they had the smallest number of ribbons presented. Royce was sneering behind them.

[Just as I thought they ran away from it] he thought

"Wait, did you guys even fought monsters? We only saw you two walking" Freda asked

Both looked at each other "What do you mean by you only saw us walking My Lady?"

"Exactly what I said, I mean how did you even get those ribbons when you did not meet any monsters?"

The crowd gave them a loud booing sound. Albert was laughing quietly behind that got Gin irritated.

"Pardon me My Lady, but we did fight monsters. We defeated a lot of them. It's just that majority of thosevmonsters don't have ribbons attached to them" Gin explained

The entire arena burst into waves of laughter including the nobles.

"Haha...don't joke around with the Holy Trinity Ward boy" Freda crossed her arms

"But I wasn't joking My Lady, we fought goblins and hobgoblins and even Orcs!"

The laughter began to shake the entire arena.

Hahahahaha! That slave is so full of himself!!! One audience said

"This is bad your majesty if you're going to vouch for Catori you will be humiliated big time," Leon was watching from above

King Ryu only gave him a cold shoulder and continuously watches the event

"Why? Why don't you believe us?" Gin asked "Cain, Caleb, and Linden are witnesses! They saw the dead bodies inside the dungeon!"

Freda looked at the three trainees "Well?"

Cain and Caleb nodded their heads "Gin was right My lady, there were indeed dead monsters when arrived at that part of the dungeon close to the exit"

The crowd was immediately silenced.

"How can you be so sure that those were indeed dead monsters and not illusions?" Royce comes forward.

"But our eyes don't lie Sir. We did saw bodies" Cain replied

"Did you saw them fighting?" Royce rebutted

"N-no"

"Ha! I thought so! You guys have been tricked by that slave! Please show us that part of the dungeon they were talking about!" Royce orders and the screen starts changing the images inside and finally got to the part of the dungeon they were talking about.

Linden, Cain and Caleb's eyes grew large as they watched the screen.

"H-how can that be?" Linden uttered

"Where are the bodies!?"

--- end.