「Knight ‘Van Herdos’ ’ favorability increased by 2.」

「Current favorability: 87/100」

“What the hell is the criterion for increasing this punk’s favorability……?”

I know and I don’t know. Shaking his head, Cadel unleashed dozens of [Wind Blades], chasing after the now larger White Spiders.

* * *

[Blood Flow Sword’s First Form, Thorns]

A three-branched aura wrapped itself around the Armor Ogres’ waist. In an instant, the three Armor Ogres were immobilized, and Van leapt behind them.

Squeeze.

The murderous force tightened the [Thorns] and began to crack the Armor Ogres’ armor. He turned his back to the monsters and strained his arms as if to pull them in. The muscles of his weight-bearing legs bulged taut and the ground became shallow.

His crimson eyes flashed with ferocity as he slowly drew the greatsword he had raised over his shoulder down in front of his chest. The [Thorns] that followed the movement of the greatsword were also pulled taut. His angry forearms and flexed waist cringed under the weight of the three Armor Ogres.

‘Tighten the thorns to the limit and shatter their armor at the same time.’

That was Van’s plan. The Armor Ogre struggled wildly, but Van never let go of the greatsword. Inhaled, he drew the greatsword all the way down.

Crack!

The armor of three Armor Ogres bound to the [Thorns] was destroyed in one fell swoop. His aura pierced the monsters’ frail flesh, sucking every drop of blood from them.

Sensing the success of his plan, he quickly turned around, straightened his stance, and released his [Thorns].

His instinctive gaze swept over their roaring bodies. A strong condensed sword energy flashed out, targeting any weaknesses he saw.

Swoosh—

The relentless attack cut deep into the Armor Ogres’ exposed flesh. The hooded shards of armor only added to their weaknesses, and Van cruelly and persistently attacked the gap.

Even the trajectory of the clubs was no match for the sword energy that could evade it. They were pummeled from head to toe, and finally fell to their knees.

With a heavy thud, the Armor Ogres fell. With a light motion, Van climbed over their bodies and swept a hand through his sweaty hair.

I could have killed them a little quicker. His body stiffened at the thought of looking good in front of Cadel.

Bittersweetly, he sought out Cadel. If there were any left, he hoped to find one to aid in the battle. But what he found was not a Cadel fighting fiercely, nor a Cadel relaxing after all the fighting.

“Vaaaan! Get that *sshole, get that *sshole!”

Three adult White Spiders, with Cadel running hard after them.

Cadel, breathing heavily, pointed to the center of the horde with an exasperated look on his face.

“It stole my bag!”

Cadel didn’t want to risk damaging the contents of the bag. It was best to follow closely behind the White Spiders for a clear shot. With his limited stamina, he chased after the monsters for a while and finally stopped them with the help of Van.

“My bag…….”

Before he could kill them, the time limit was up.

The White Spiders, which had disappeared with the bag in front of him, flickered like an afterimage. There would be a few wagons Cadel could rent if he only sold what was in the bag.

Cadel, who had been staring at the floor in stunned disbelief, snapped his head up.

‘Wait. The bag was stolen, and we didn’t kill the monsters in time. Then, don’t tell me…….’

Did we fail the trial? Cadel looked around with a panicked face, but over time, the wall did not break down, or ‘Stella’ appeared to announce the end of the trial.

‘Maybe she’s willing to turn a blind eye to one failure…… There’s no way, right?’

There was no immediate end to the trial, but it stung just the same. As his mouth watered with indescribable anxiety, Van who had stabbed his greatsword into the floor spoke in a muffled voice.

“Looks like we’re going to have to go straight to the monsters this time, no break”

Cadel stared at the red hourglass that had overturned without anyone knowing. Once again, the red sand that had filled the top was falling away. It was much less than the first time.

Cadel checked the hourglass along with Van. He stared at the falling sand as if lost in thought, then stroked his chin lightly.

‘Maybe this.’

Monsters they failed to kill in time. White Spiders disappeared without a trace as soon as the time was up. The blue hourglass failed to appear twice in a row.

A few more clues, he thought, and he might have a clue as to the nature of the trial. Cadel’s eyes narrowed as he stared at the open wall once more.

* * *

‘Damn, there’s only so much sand left, and all the monsters that come out are mismatched……. Why did the White Spiders pop out again?’

Seven Red Wyverns circled the air, spraying a steady stream of fire breath. Lumen glared at Lydon, narrowly avoiding an attack that scorched the floor with dense flames.

“If you’re going to keep to yourself, at least cut down on the wyverns.”

“Hmm, I’m running low on mana. Have you forgotten how many demons I’ve killed, Lumen?”

“If anyone hears you, they’ll think you did it alone.”

Lydon stood brazenly alone, defending the fire breath in place with a shield of ice. This was in stark contrast to Lumen, who was rolling in all directions, dodging attacks.

He looked innocent enough, but Lydon wasn’t lying when he said he was running low on mana.

At this point, Lydon didn’t have much mana left. Part of this was due to his unnecessary mana expenditure early on, but he had been subtly weakened since entering the temple.

Lydon had to be twice as careful with his mana as he normally would, and if he tried to force it, he would suffer the consequences.

Not knowing the truth, Lumen gritted his teeth and did his best to keep his temper in check.

“Then float ice footholds in the air.”

“Ice footholds?”

“I’m going to step on them and get up in front of the wyverns.”

“Ahaha! That looks kind of fun!”

Clapping his hands in delight, Lydon summoned ice with a short chant, and dozens of ice footholds formed from his mana, jaggedly rising into the air.

Lumen stomped his foot and leaped, dodging the Red Wyverns’ fire breath. With each swift leap, the blurry form closed the distance between him and the Red Wyverns.

“I don’t like flying monsters.”

A chill flashed across Lumen’s blue eyes as he faced the monsters. The hand on the scabbard twitched slightly, and then a long, lingering flash cut across a Red Wyvern’s body.

Lumen stepped onto the monster’s back before it could collapse. He leapt up, aiming for the other Red Wyvern next to it, and began to perform his drawing sword technique.

Viewed from below, Lumen’s movements in aerial combat were almost acrobatic.

Fluid movement with ice footholds and Red Wyverns, speed to fluidly dodge head-on blows, and the destructive power to split an enemy in two with a single sword drawing. It was a cool battle indeed.

Lydon watched Lumen run through the air as if he had wings on his legs, his eyes sparkling with curiosity.

“I want to fight him.”

It was tempting, to say the least.

In a fight, who would die first? Right now, he’d probably lose by a narrow margin, but after he regained his powers, it’d be a different story. It was unlikely that Cadel would allow him to fight Lumen, so he’d have to do it secretly.

Lydon watched Lumen fight with amusement and imagination. Suddenly, something pierced his shield and made itself known.

“Huh? What is this?”

It was the White Spiders who were not paying attention and melted on their own under the wyverns’ fire breath. One of them, who managed to survive, knocked Lydon’s shield without fear.

Lydon’s instinct was to kill it, but he withdrew his outstretched hand when he saw the familiar bag of luggage stuffed into the monster’s mouth.

“This is…….”

While that unexpected discovery was being made, Lumen succeeded in slaying the last wyvern.

While he wasn’t in direct contact with the fire breath, he couldn’t escape its heat, which left sooty marks all over his body.

Breathless, he spun smoothly through the air and jumped off the severed back of the Red Wyvern. He intended to land on the ice foothold he’d seen ahead of time.

However.

“……!”

Suddenly, the foothold that had been there just moments before was gone. His legs gave out and he began to plummet downward. He blinked quickly, but there was no foothold in sight.

Muttering a few profanities, Lumen grabbed the Red Wyvern’s leg as they fell together, then he spun around, managing to land on its back.

Kkuung—

The falling Red Wyvern’s body hit the ground with a loud thud. Putting the monster between him and the ground didn’t offset the full impact of the fall.

Lumen yelped, feeling the shock of his bones crackling. A violent cough mixed with droplets of blood. He felt like his ribs were cracked.

Finally, he pushed himself to his feet, a murderous look on his face like never before.

“Lydon…….”

He glared at the source of the crash. If he didn’t cut off that fairy’s head right now, he wouldn’t be able to control his rage.

“Lumen, look at this! Why is this here?”

But the moment he found the familiar luggage bag that Lydon showed off with a bright smile.

“……That’s Leader’s bag, right?”

Perplexity overtook his anger.

Shifting his rattling body, Lumen stepped in front of Lydon. Behind him, the White Spider flipped upside down, its legs frozen.

“That one was biting it. Cadel wouldn’t have been killed by a mere White Spider. What is it? What do you think it is, Lumen?”

Lumen ignored Lydon’s question and took the bag. Unzipping it, he found an assortment of herbs, clothing, bandages, potions, and other items that he could only recognize as belonging to Cadel.

‘I’m pretty sure it’s Leader’s bag.’

Why did this bag come all the way here? It had been confirmed that the rooms were not connected. This was impossible unless Cadel had fallen out of the sky, and if he had, there was no way he could have missed it.

‘Why did that monster take Leader’s bag …….’

White Spiders. They were the monsters that appeared in the last turn. They couldn’t handle them in time due to the unexpected hatchlings, and they all disappeared after Lumen and Lydon missed them.

‘……Yes. They’re gone. So where did they go?’

Did they just disappear, or did they get moved to another space?

Lumen’s behavior became urgent with the sudden question. A plausible hypothesis emerged.

“Lydon, don’t kill that thing, leave it alone.”

“The time limit is almost up though?”

“The trial wouldn’t end if we didn’t catch it anyway, so let it live. And…… You, don’t you have something Leader might recognize?”

“Well…….”

“Time is running out. Pull out something if you have it.”

After a moment’s thought, Lydon’s eyes widened as he remembered, and he pointed to his necklace.

“This. Cadel gave it to me.”

“Good, put that in this bag.”

“Why?”

“I thought I said we didn’t have time.”

“Umm, this will take a lot of mana to take it off…….”

If someone other than the owner of the necklace’s mana attempted to remove it, a significant amount of energy would be expended. As Lumen watched Lydon ponder, he pulled a bunch of herbs from Cadel’s bag.

“You’re not going to run out of mana if you eat this, and we don’t have time to think about it so hurry up.”

“……I don’t like those because they’re tasteless.”

Eventually, the defeated Lydon drained most of his mana and released the necklace. Lumen snatched it up and stuffed it into the bag, then stepped in front of the upturned White Spider.

‘If my guess is right, Leader will notice this.’

He shoved the bag into the monster’s jaws and checked the hourglass. The last handful of sand was falling to the bottom.

And at the same time, the White Spider and the bag disappeared.