The Trial Begins

THE DARKNESS DENSED in the wilderness. The crackling of the insects was rising as the light dimmed out. It's been about half an hour since Wrik and company began their venture into the wilderness for a place to spend the night. There were a lot of old enormous trees here, making it wilder. Apart from the trees, there was an infrastructure of broken buildings here and there. Those had been fine architects of the past, but now only left with their lost majesty.

The one who's in the lead was the emerald-eyed girl, behind her was Wrik and Davin conversing over what happened after Wrik went unconscious.

"So, she single-handedly beat up a group of a dozen participants?" Wrik raised an eyebrow. He looked at the serene figure in front of him. Soft as the morning wind. He couldn't imagine the scene of her dominating a group of people.

"Well, not a dozen. She made a statement by beating a few to the dozen," Davin spoke out awkwardly. "I think, it worked well. If not, they wouldn't have left us so easily."

Wrik heaved a breath. He learned that after he passed out; they were transported in the wilderness. And a feud broke out over the emergency kits; a group started to beat the precipitants for their kits. Their business might have gone well if they didn't come to rob them off. Especially the emerald-eyed girl.

Davin didn't even need to pick up his sword. Before he could have taken a defensive stance, she started her assault at the crowd. And she had not at any disadvantages—attaining upper hand quite comfortably. After that, she took three of their emergency kits in return as the leader of the crooks settled it.

On another matter, Wrik still didn't know her name. The young lady even forbade Davin to mention it. She held onto the grudge that he didn't meet her yesterday. Without much choice, Wrik started to call her: 'miss'. He didn't even explain why he didn't meet with her; his mind was still hurting—it's not a good time for another argument. Now, he was figuring out a plan on how to communicate with her.

Suddenly, he sensed something in the surrounding, disrupting his thoughts. He looked up to notice that Miss similarly stopped at her leading. She gestured with her arms to come near her.

"There's something in the front," she whispered as they came nearer.

This is the first time they have sensed something's presence aside from humans, after being dropped here.

"Let me check," Wrik said as he moved up a few steps. He put a bit of effort in his [Eye of Insights] and noticed the silhouettes of four humanoid creatures—not as tall as an adult human, nor as straight as human. It had no hair on its body, almost naked in the dim light. Its teeth were like savages, and they were carrying short sticks and pikes as weapons. He couldn't notice more in the shady lights. The pain was still there. It was unwise to bother it more.

"There four, a head shorter…." He explained what he noticed to the other two. Hearing that miss sighed in relaxation, while Davin spoke out:

''Its goblins; should be of the primitive tribes with lower intelligence."

Goblin? Wrik knew about it, he had read a few stuff about it before. He figured out that it wasn't any tough opponent for them.

He equipped the long sword, readying himself for his first fight in the trials. Davin was the same, was ready with the sword.

"You two boys seem excited over this battle?" Miss said with her lips raised. "How about you two finish it, then?"

"Shouldn't be that difficult." Davin exchanged a glance with Wrik, more like asking for his approval.

"I have no problem at all," Wrik shook his head, "I'll take the right."

Mentioning that, Wrik rushed towards the right side . . . He hadn't had a battle for months. Maybe a bit excited seeing the goblins. Davin clicked his tongue, but followed on the left.

Wrik sped up his pace the closer he got; the good thing was that the goblins didn't detect anything. And when they noticed, it was too late. He leapt straight at one of the goblins, piercing in the head. The blade cracked the skull, as the growl of the goblin came with the blood—he couldn't see the colour in the dark, but he smelled it in the air. Another goblin rushed right at him with a pike but met his right leg in its chest, and the next moment it was two meters away in the ground, gasping for air. He didn't like the way it growled, so he finished it rather quickly by slitting its neck.

It was easy, too easy, even for him. He didn't feel even a bit of thrill or dissatisfaction killing off these creatures. Well, it's not like he hadn't killed before. He looked to notice Davin similarly wrapped up the other two rather easily, though his face showed an ugly expression.

"How's the show?" He asked, peeking at the only female present in the group.

"A manly brawl indeed," she said, pointing at his dress.

He found out that it was dyed with blood strained from the goblins. Though it's not all over the body, it's still a bit unsettling for him. Finding nothing to say, he shrugged his shoulders.

"Well, if it's over then let's continue, I don't want to spend the night with these goblin corpses."

. . .

"We should leave here as soon as possible," Byul said to the tall figure—she didn't know the name of. Well, they were too busy for the introductions. The screams of the infectors with the chorus from humans were more than enough reason for them to forget about the introduction.

The brown-skinned, tall man nodded as they moved deeper into the wilderness. The sun had set a few minutes ago. It would be a pain in the ass if they had to fight even in the dark. The pace of the tall man was a bit fast for her, but she followed in haste, without complaining.

As they moved, the screams of the infectors go numb in their ears while the cricketing of the insects started to raise. Byul sighed. This place was more dangerous than she had been told. Suddenly the tall figure in her front stopped; there was a disturbance in the front.

"What's the matter?" She asked even though she heard the sounds of growl and fighting.

"Some fellows are fighting against infectors in the front." This was the first time the tall guy opened his mouth to say something. His accent was a bit lovelier than his figure.

"Are we going to help them?" She asked with a straight face, but her inside said something else. 'Please say no, please. I'm already wrecked enough.'

The tall figure mentioned nothing, stepped further quietly. And without thinking, Byul followed behind him, gritting her teeth. There were six figures in the front—two of them were human, a male, and the other was a female a year or two older than her. They were fighting against four infectors—looking as savage as Byul encountered before.

"Can you delay one?" The tall guy whispered.

Byul nodded, delaying one—she could achieve that, but it's still difficult to finish one on her own.

"Alright then, here's the plan: you go help the girl over there on the right, while I finish my business with the other one there," He whispered the plan—more like a brawl.

So, four against four sounded fair enough to her. She only had to delay one. Mumbling that, she rushed out with the other guy. The tall guy with the spear while she had the wand in her left and a tiny knife in the right. As she moved, her heartbeat rose, not out of excitement but of blight. If something went wrong, she had to pay dearly.

Byul made the first ambush in the back of the neck of an infector with the wind blade. She learned her lessons the last time, though it's still sallow. She shoved the same spot with the knife. Yet it was still standing, lunging in desperation as liquids were spilling out of the wound. The spell and knife weakened it by a lot, but not enough to kill it.

Byul prepared another wind blade as she looked at the other girl—fighting the other one. Her conditions were rather severe, with a heavy wound on her abdomen. But she was still holding on, panting heavily, with blood on her mouth.

Byul didn't linger on her more, severed the head of the vulnerable Infector, and looked to notice the big guy was coming straight towards them. He finished the infector rather quickly and prepared to help them. He helped the injured girl, finishing off the last one of the batch as he gasped for breaths.

Byul looked around to finally notice: there were six more corpses of infector present in the ground apart from the one they killed just now. She looked at the wounded girl with a new light. She asked the injured girl mildly shouldering her. "Can you walk?"

"I'll manage," the other girl stumbled on, but Byul caught her before she could fall. Even in that state, she was emitting dignity.

This place was not safe. The sooner they leave here, the sooner they will be safer.

"Slow down, you got some nasty wound on your abdomen." Byul shouldered redhead wounded girl in the walk as she spoke. "Let's leave, before more of them chase after us."

"Yeah," the other man nodded while breathing. He's not that tall of a figure, barely a few inches taller than her. But the thing that startled her most was his clothing; it was the casual clothing you wear in your home. There's no weapon on him apart from the katana. He didn't seem to come here with any preparations. It wasn't a good time for questioning or pondering, so they moved as fast as they could from the place.

The only thought on Byul's mind while moving was: 'please not anymore today.' They wandered for hours as their surroundings started to strangle in darkness. And by the grace of Maha, they didn't come across any infectors in the path, until they found a passage in the ground to stay.

. . .

Anton looked around as he panted for air; a dozen corpses of goblins were on the ground—dying with blood. Even Anton himself was soaked in blood. The good thing was that most of it was not his. Though he felt rather filthy in the goblin blood, he couldn't do anything on that part.

"Told you, not to mess with me," he collected the knives from their bodies. "Now, look what you get from this."

After collecting the knives, he rushed out of there quietly… After covering a good amount of distance from that site; he sat on one of the branches of a big old tree. Leaning his back on the main trunk, he opened a bottle and savoured half the content from it. Then he opened the medicines from the emergency kit to treat all the injuries he got from the goblins. He spent half of an hour on his injury before his stomach called out in hunger.

"Ahh . . ." Anton then opened his status window, mouthing a chunk of dry meat. He didn't have much time to check on what he got from the special ticket. He found out that it's a map. He inspected while mouthing the dry rations and water.

After a good amount of time, deciphering it, Anton laughed out, "So, I'm the trespasser here, eh?" He found out that he was inside a goblin colony though it's a bit far away from the main dwellings. "Let's see what's more there."

"A quest?" A broad smile appeared on his lips as he read the contents. "Haha, now my blood's pumping."

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END OF CHAPTER EIGHT: THE TRIAL BEGINS.

NEXT CHAPTER: THE ART OF MAHASAYING.

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