「The ‘Trial of Cooperation’ begins.」

The first trial began with a flicker in his vision. Cadel opened his closed eyes with a throbbing headache and found himself in a completely different space.

Cadel looked around quickly.

‘Where am I……?’

An isolated room with walls on all sides. It was a barren space with no windows, but luckily there were torches everywhere to help them see.

Next to him was Van, who scanned the surroundings sharply and combatively, as if he were about to uncover the identity of this space.

“I didn’t expect the seal to be so easy to break, but I didn’t expect the trials. ……Who the hell was she, Commander? ‘Stella’ and ‘Hesonia’……. Surely she wasn’t the real goddess Stella?”

“Who knows? You might as well believe it’s real, you’ll have something to brag about.”

It was hard to believe she was the real ‘Stella’, or to simply deny it. There was a lot to take in. The encounter was absurdly short to find out.

However, it was easier to believe that she was the goddess Stella, as Cadel had said. A goddess of unknown power would make these strange phenomena easier to accept.

Van nervously glanced around, then fixed his gaze on one spot. His nervous gaze landed on an ‘hourglass’ perched atop the north wall.

“Commander, do you see that hourglass…… right there?”

“Uh…… right. I don’t think there’s any sand, but why is that thing in the air?”

“It can’t be a normal ornament, can it? Shall I smash it?”

It was a rather large hourglass. A rounded, curved piece of glass, with a chiseled waist, it was a common sight. It was a ubiquitous hourglass, except there was no sand inside.

What use could it be? What could it possibly mean, floating around so boldly? It was suspicious in every way. After a moment’s consideration, Cadel shook his head slightly.

“No. Let’s wait and see. Nothing has started yet, so maybe in time we’ll see something…….”

But at that very moment.

Shaaaa—

Reddish-colored sand began to accumulate at the bottom of the empty hourglass. The suddenly appearing sand quickly filled the bottom, and as soon as it reached two-thirds of the way to the bottom. The hourglass flipped over.

“The hourglass is……!”

As if to signal something, the space they were in vibrated. To be precise, it was the sound of the wall in the direction of the hourglass cracking from side to side.

An eerie wailing came from a crack in the wall that was slowly widening. Things were going badly. Sensing danger, Cadel immediately drew upon his mana and Van condensed his sword energy.

What emerged on the other side of the completely open wall was.

“Jelly Bombs……?”

Bubbling, bouncy bodies. Their transparent hides reflected the unidentifiable liquid that filled their bodies unfiltered, making a splashing sound as they kicked and bounced their round bodies.

Jelly Bombs. They looked more like water balloons than monsters, bouncing their colorful bodies into the room.

The colorful colors and cute movements were indeed appropriate for relaxing the other party, but Cadel’s expression was cold as he stared at them.

They were, by their honest name, moving bombs.

“Van, stay a certain distance away. If you get any closer, you’ll be engulfed in the blast.”

“I’ll keep that in mind.”

The Jelly Bombs were coming in endless streams. At first glance, there were at least 50 to 60 of them. It was like 60 small bombs rolling into a tightly packed room.

Van swung his greatsword wildly at them. The low-altitude, ground-slashing blade made contact with the Jelly Bombs’ bodies, and their resilient shells simply tore open, releasing the liquid inside. At the same time.

Boom! Kapow!

The continuous binge echoed like an assault on the ears. The acrid, smoky frenzy rushed in, blurring their vision.

Cadel frowned as he unfurled a wind barrier in front of Van and himself. The Jelly Bombs’ fluids were a kind of detonator. Considering that even a small wound would tear the hide, it was an extremely sensitive time bomb.

They also lived in groups. If one went off, so did the one next to it. Unless you wanted to get caught in the chain reaction, it was best to stay out of the way.

‘But they are not tricky ones to catch, because you can always take some of the pressure off by gaining distance. If they are only coming from one direction, they are easier to deal with. ……Is this what you call a trial?’

Although the number was excessive, it was still bland to be a trial handed down by the goddess herself.

‘The hourglass is…….’

About a third of the sand had already fallen while the explosion continued. Would this trial be over when all the sand at the top was gone?

Gazes armed with nagging suspicion scanned the hourglass ahead and the wide-open wall beyond. Frighteningly, before the binge could diminish, a new sword energy puffed out of the smoke, and the loud chain of explosions resumed.

‘……I don’t think it’s going to end this easily.’

* * *

“It’s over.”

All the sand fell away, and the space they were in vibrated again. The wall that had been open was closing.

Cadel summoned a wind that circled the entire space, dispersing the acrid smoke. The Jelly Bombs, which had been treated with Van’s sword energy from start to finish, exploded, leaving nothing but dark soot on the hard floor.

His brow narrowed as he looked around the half-empty space, his greatsword was slung over his shoulder.

“What, the sand ran out, we’ve dealt with all the monsters, should we have gotten in there before the wall closed?”

“Possibly. Or perhaps we simply didn’t fulfill the terms of the trial. Am I missing something…….”

Folding his arms, Cadel stared at the hourglass. The red sand was still piled high at the bottom. The sand hadn’t disappeared, so maybe when the hourglass turned over, another monster would appear, and they would have to repeat the trial until they got tired of it.

Cadel was stuck in the middle of a trial he couldn’t quite figure out. The sand in the hourglass began to change color.

“……What’s that? Why did it change color?”

Not only that, but the amount had decreased. In an instant, the half-disappeared sand turned a bright blue as if it had been dyed. Reflexively raising his aura, Van aimed his greatsword northward.

“Is it going to come out again?”

The hourglass has flipped. Blue sand was pouring out of the bottom, a much smaller amount than at the beginning. Time passed, but the north wall didn’t open.

“……Why isn’t it opening?”

Nothing had changed except for the hourglass. Was it break time? The goddess was going to take care of their break just because they were dealing with Jelly Bombs? It was a very generous treatment for a trial.

‘I’ll have to check it out up close.’

Cadel thought there might be a device somewhere, but when he took a step forward.

“Don’t waste your mana. No matter how many times you hit it, that hourglass won’t break. I’m sure you’ve checked it over and over again?”

“You’re worried about my mana, Lumen? Ahaha! I’m offended! I only want to get worries from Cadel.”

A familiar voice called out. Reflexively, he turned his head and locked eyes with Van.

The interior was tightly enclosed on all sides. It was not cramped, but it was big enough to give them a good view of the room, so there was no way Cadel wouldn’t have spotted Lumen and Lydon if they were in the same room.

‘On the other side of the wall?’

The voices were coming from the north. Striding forward, Cadel placed his hand on the wall and called their names.

“Lumen! Lydon! Can you hear me? Answer me if you can!”

There was a short silence. Couldn’t they hear him? He pressed his ear to the wall, concentrating on the sound, and the voice stretched out as if it had been waiting.

“Leader, are you there?”

“Cadel, are you outside? We’re in the middle of something called a trial, do you want to join us? Come this way!”

Conversation is possible!

Cadel gestured wildly toward Van. Grabbing the arm of the approaching Van, he raised his voice.

“We’re also trapped in the trial! This place is all walled off, and when the hourglass flips, monsters come out. When the hour is over, the monsters seem to disappear as well……. What about you?”

“Same, except now the sand is blue.”

“……It’s the same. Seeing that we can talk to each other, the wall seems thinner than I thought.”

“If I break this, will the space connect?”

“Let’s do this, I’m going to try to break the wall from this side, stay back.”

After the conversation, Cadel lightly shook Van’s arm which he was holding. It was a signal to break it.

The corners of Van’s mouth twitched slightly at the pretty face looking up at him. He even felt subtle ecstasy in Cadel’s natural search for himself. It wouldn’t be bad to be stuck in a space just the two of them for the rest of their lives.

Van pressed the corners of his mouth together as if to resist an unpleasant impulse, then nodded vigorously. He swung his aura-fueled greatsword, and it slammed into the wall with a heavy crackling sound.

There was a deafening roar. Covering his mouth with his sleeve, Cadel squinted through the blowing dust and debris.

‘Are we good……?’

A wall that thick, with no soundproofing, would easily collapse with Van’s sword energy. Cadel thought and looked ahead.

“This room doesn’t look like an ordinary room.”

Beyond the gaping hole in the center of the wall was a landscape that was not at all what he expected. A darkness that seemed to have no end. Only it lurked, breaking the boundaries of space.

The darkness beyond seeped into the crumbling wall like a thick liquid, seeping through the gaping hole like a wound healing. The darkness quickly filled the gaps and became a wall. Except for the stone dust and debris that fell to the floor, there was no sign that the wall had been broken.

Cadel’s jaw dropped at the unexpected turn of events.

“Leader, are you there yet?”

Lumen’s voice came from the other side. The destruction of the wall had apparently had no effect on Lumen’s side.

“The rooms are not connected.”

“What does that mean?”

“Apparently, the reason we can talk is not because we’re close to each other…….”

CadelI was about to say that it must be a special property unique to this room when the wall that Van had just broken a moment ago vibrated, and a gap began to open again.

“Commander, the hourglass is…….”

At the end of his quick glance, the reddish sand was once again falling, signaling the arrival of the second monster.

“Lumen! Lydon! Check your hourglasses. Did it change color too?”

He backed away a little, but there was no answer. No matter how many times he called out.

‘……No way.’

Apparently, the blue hourglass wasn’t just for signaling a break.

‘It’s the time to connect with other teams, and when it’s over, we’ll go back to…….’

Beyond the half-open wall, a rumbling roar sounded. Van leaped backward, dragging Cadel with him, and stood in his way.

“So it’s clear that the red hourglass signals the arrival of the monster. If we don’t kill it before it runs out of sand, the trial fails?”

“I don’t really want to check it out.”

He had a general idea of what the hourglass was for. All that was left was to uncover the identity of the trial.

‘Let’s take it one step at a time.’

His eyes were sharp as he stared over the wall.