Rays of light dissipated over the horizon, casting a soft red glow over the World.
The sun had already begun to set, but Kai and Damon had yet to take a break from the continuous walking.
After rigorously walking for half a day, Kai felt as though his legs were saying their last goodbyes to him.
His clothes—soaking wet with sweat—irritatingly stuck to his bare skin, making his body itch so badly that he barely restrained himself from clawing his flesh out.
Faint noises of heaving escaped Kai's mouth while Damon on the other hand, looked as if he had only walked a single step.
"Ah— We've arrived!" Damon couldn't hold in his excitement and shouted.
As soon as his words reached Kai's ears, he felt a sense of relief washing over his mind.
He raised his head and looked ahead.
"Huh?"
Up front, was a small fence comparable to the height of their waist.
'I understand that the basic idea was to prevent any danger from venturing inside those boundaries... But go damn what are those materials!?'
This time, Kai was in his all rights to freak out. Even though a fence did exist to protect the inside space—it was neither high enough to stop most of the monsters nor could it have withstood even a single attack from the weakest of the weakest monsters.
These so-called "fences" were just a bunch of small branches of trees tied together with an exceptionally thin rope.
In such a condition, even a toddler would be able to rip it apart.
Kai couldn't even make a face to react to this abomination. He just stood right there, staring at it with all his might. Questioning his existence.
"How are we supposed to endure an all-out attack from all sides..." He mumbled as a disguised smile appeared on his face, the corner of his lips twitched as a mix of horror and anxiousness washed over him.
Just as he was pondering whether to continue or not, a system window popped up right in front of his face.
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[You have cleared the hidden condition—Endure the Painful Walk—to participate in the Trial.]
[All 4 participants of the Trial have passed the hidden condition, The Trial will begin in an hour.]
[The Trial information will be provided soon.]
---
His eyes quickly ran through the content of the screen as he let out a small sigh.
"so at least the leg torture wasn't in vain." He muttered under his breath.
'But to think this was a trial, that means Damon did it twice?' he looked at Damon with his eyes widened, visibly shocked, he rolled his eyes back towards the fences as he slightly shook his head sideways.
'I shouldn't even bother about that right now... It's time to meet the other two, ain't it?'
At a distance, there was a small opening in between the fences that looked like the entry point.
Damon seemed to be intentionally walking towards that entry point, as to why. Kai didn't know.
Since the time his identity as a Scavenger has been revealed, Damon has gone completely silent and didn't utter a single word.
Kai didn't mind that at all because, for him, such a thing was as common as his heart beating unconsciously.
'Well, let's just follow him unconditionally for now...' he thought as he began to follow behind his steps.
Soon, as they reached the 'Entrance,' Kai saw something that, for once, made sense.
The inside area of the fence was empty; instead, at the center of that somewhat large field stood a statue alongside two humans that sat right beside it.
Their figure wasn't definitively visible yet, but Kai could already guess what they were good at.
He narrowed his eyes as he tried to get a good look at his teammates.
"A young man in his early to mid-twenties and a kid..." Kai muttered as he carefully noticed their physique and items.
'The man looks like a Swordsman,' his gaze fell upon the sheath of a longsword that was tugged to his waist.
'The kid though... Weak body... Doesn't look strong enough to be an archer or assassin...'
His eyes widened as a thought popped up inside his head, "Wait..!" He said in a voice barely above a whisper.
Damon heard his voice and turned his head around. Looking at him, he asked:
"What's the matter?"
"Is he... what I think he is?" Kai asked while trying to be as discreet as possible.
Damon slightly shook his head up and down and continued to walk towards the others.
"No wonder he was that disappointed in me being a scavenger... Who'd ever wanna have 2 scavengers on a team of 4 in a defensive battle..." A deep, long sigh escaped his lungs as he, too, began to walk towards them.
Soon enough, all four of them stood in front of each other.
The young swordsman became the first to break the awkward silence as he extended his hand towards Kai, "Nice to meet you, my name's Daniel Crest, and as of now, I'm a Swordsman."
His face bore a calm, striking smile, almost too welcoming for Kai.
Acting as normally as he could, Kai shook hands with Daniel.
"Hello, I'm Kai Evernox, a close combat fighter."
Kai wasn't completely wrong, since all the techniques he had learned were mostly used in close combats.
The next one to extend his hand was the kid, "Helloo, I'm Xavier Blake."
'As expected...' Kai thought as he shook his hand with Xavier while pulling the best smile he could.
"Halo! I'm Kai Evernox, a pleasure to meet you!" He said enthusiastically, trying to match the level of the kid.
"And you know me already, but a pleasure to meet ya, Kai!" Damon slowly waved his hand at the level of his shoulder while his pearly white teeth peeked through the gap in his smiling lips.
"Good to meet you too, Damon!"
'Gosh! How long am I supposed to keep smiling!? T-T'
Kai's spoken words and thoughts didn't match up at all.
Suddenly, a system notification alert softly hummed into their mind, snatching away all their attention as a system window materialized right in front of their eyes.
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[The Trial Information is being Shared.]
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