That was only just a dream, I’m starting to feel my body.
I must’ve lost consciousness after that woman stabbed me.
I don’t see any wounds on my body, not even the hole that was supposed to there when that woman stabbed me.
Did I heal myself….
No, I couldn’t have done it.
Is this the afterlife?
“Am I dead?” I asked before I noticed Kayden.
“Thank god you aren’t. I thought I was too late.” Kayden said as he sat beside me.
“Did you heal me?” I asked before I realized we were leaning on a tree.
“Yeah, well it was him.” Kayden said as he pointed upwards.
When I looked up, I saw a wooden face looking down at us.
This must be the Nature Guardian, Kayden must’ve received help from him.
Similar to how I received help from Flamna Mater.
“He’s still here?” I asked as the Guardian doesn’t seem to be moving.
“No, he left some time ago.” Kayden said he kept looking at the Nature Guardian’s face.
“I see, so you must’ve dealt with that contestant already and gained some spells on top of that.” I said before Kayden sullenly turned his head.
“Hmm, alright.” I said, knowing he didn’t deny it but he also didn’t seem happy about it.
Well who would be happy about killing another person.
Another human specifically, one with the same intentions as us.
To win the game for a specific reason we don’t know that reason though, we can only surmise.
It didn’t take long for me to look around and notice one of the adventurers hanging from a thorn.
It was the one who carried a hammer, then there was a lump of flowers beside him.
If I look closely I can pick the painted fingers protruding from the flowers and the staff on the ground which definitely belonged to the contestant.
How horrid… but what happened to the blindfolded man….
Well, seeing how these two died here, I’m going to assume that this tree which is oddly standing in the middle of the road.
This must also be Kayden’s spell and how the blindfolded man died.
“Let’s collect the lizard bodies for the quest reward.” I said to him as I stood up and walked down the road to the dead lizard-men laying all about the floor.
“Hey, Airon.” Kayden called out to me with a melancholic tone as he followed behind me.
“What do we do with those bodies?
“Just leave them, if people from the village come to find them then they’ll just assume it’s the Colossal Nature Guardian. For some reason the Guardian are seen as Sacred Beast. Trespassing on their territory is like igniting their wrath.” I explained, although I don’t know a lot, considering how Pultra and the mercenaries acted.
His footsteps paused quickly and heavily.
“Yes I do but if it wasn’t you then we would’ve died. So thank you for saving me, for saving us.” Of course I understand his feelings but there’s also the fact that we are all contestants following the same rules.
Well.
” I know you killed two uninvolved adventurers but they were going to kill us too.
If you don’t want to do this anymore than forfeit, this isn’t some video game where we can just go through the contest without doing anything.
People are going to die whether we move or not and when they run into us, they will kill us or try to.
The rules are simple.”
I may sound heartless but it is what it is, after all I’ve already resolved myself to win this contest by whatever means necessary.
“You-… I don’t understand. How can you just accept this, this contest. It’s only been a few weeks since we joined but-” He’s distraught, I understand.
It was stressful.
After all, he had my back the entire time and was taking them out one by one, from the Yellow Lizard-man to the Adventures and that contestant.
“Look, I understand where you’re coming from, how much stress you feel. I can’t tell you that what you did is right or wrong. However we survived and followed the rules of the contest. Go to the carriage and rest. I’ll load the lizard-men back.” I told him as I continued to walk down the road to collect the quest loot.
Kayden quietly headed back to the carriage while I headed to the Lizard-men bodies to load the carriage.
It took over an hour even though I tried to move fast, I pulled all of the dead Lizard-men back to the cart and even cut the Yellow one from being practically shot into the tree by a branch.
It was a quiet ride back, however on the way, we did see and heard other adventurers from our guild battling monsters for their quest.
None seem to have gone as far as the swamp.
Luckily though, if it wasn’t for him being asleep, Kayden would be as nervous as a child on the first day of school.
Understandably though.
That battle made me realize something, I need to become more creative with my mana even if I don’t have the spells.
I need to be more versatile, I can’t just rely on close range spells and enhancements, I need ranged spells that are gonna hit hard.
Wide range attacks that can be used constantly.
I need to improve on the ranged spells in my grimoire.
I can allow myself to get hit with such a severe attack ever again, I won’t always be able to heal myself and Kayden won’t always be able to save me.
If he wasn’t there I would’ve been killed, definitely.
I also need to increase my firepower and my own strength.
She was clearly stronger than me but it doesn’t seem she made a contract with a guardian yet.
So she was incredibly talented without one, she had a clear conviction, a reason to be here.
It was for a moment but that moment I got close to her, there was a clarity in her eyes as if she was determined to erase anyone who stood against her and win this contest.
Am I not ready for this?
Is that what this means, was I on the verge of death because I failed in the test of determination.
I said I would lose no matter what, I wouldn’t die no matter who I go against.
I failed.
I can not…
No, I will not allow that to happen again.
My power will be as strong as my reason, as strong as my conviction.
This is all for you, my brother.
I will not fail again, I was given another chance.
I cannot let it go to waste.
I will become the strongest without consideration.
I clearly wasn’t giving my all into this, I thought it was just a game but no.
This is no game, this is a contest of life and death.
And I will not fail again.
“Kayden, wake up. We’re here.” We made it to the city just a few feet away from the guild.
“Hm, what?” He woke up seemingly confused before jolting up as if seeing a ghost.
There is a lot of people staring at us after all, our clothes are ripped and ruined and it seems we’re the oddest party so far.
There was a guild worker sweepin the outside floor, it was one of the brolic butlers as he noticed us.
He put the broom down and greeted us at the door before taking the carriage to the back of the guild.
While we headed inside from the front door, we spoke with the receptionist and let her know the butler took the loot to the back.
It didn’t take long for them to calculate the reward.
Since the receptionist brought the pouches to us in about 20 minutes.
“The reward was increased because of the Yellow Lizard-man. Your luck isn’t getting better, huh.” The receptionist said jokingly although she had a straight face.
She also carried a serving tray with two glass cups half-way filled with alcohol.
“You wouldn’t believe it.” I said as she put the pouches and drinks in front of us.
“Give me another.” Kayden said as he suddenly slammed his cup on the table.
“Considering the fact that the Yellow Lizard-Man is a C-Rank monster then the next one will also be on the house. Would you like another one too?” The receptionist asked as she looked at me.
“Yeah I’ll take another as well.” I quickly finished my cup before she took them to the bar.
As she mentioned the Yellow Lizard-Man’s rank, I immediately checked my guild Id and sure enough.
The rank increased from D2 to D1.
That was the last duo quest that me and Kayden needed to take to reach Drole and Pultra.
I had a little trouble finishing this chapter but it looks like I’ll release today aswell…
Did I fold?
hopefully you enjoy and please start voting so I could at least get to top 100:)