The fog-eggs passed through a great, shining gate. Once inside, the ninety-nine fog cocoons began to dissipate.
A beautiful, noble, and expansive hall appeared before the trial-takers. However, unlike before, there were no bookshelves or chandeliers to light the space. It was completely empty—except for the people.
As the group of ninety-nine began to cluster in groups, a few individuals remained alone.
Among them stood a shackled boy. On his back, a spear; at his waist, a rounded-tip sword. He carried two pouches—one containing a journal and scattered pages, the other holding a water canteen and two adventurer insignias, one bronze and the other silver.
He wore a dark robe lined with wolf-like leather.
It was Faust.
He stood still among the crowd, waiting for the trial's instructions.
Suddenly, a voice echoed—neither male nor female, neither rough nor soft. It simply was.
It came not from any particular point in the room, but from every place at once.
"The second trial shall commence soon. From this moment, if you pass the trial, you will automatically proceed to the next. Each participant is granted one chance to leave when you reach the third trial and above, but they will be recalled to the same trial the next time the castles descend.
"Your goal is simple: within the labyrinth, search for forty-nine fruits. Any participant who finds and consumes at least one will pass to the third trial."
As the voice fell silent, the environment changed instantly.
Faust found himself alone—except for the path ahead. He was surrounded by towering walls made of roots, stretching as far as his eyes could see. The roots pulsed, as if alive. The ground was grassy, green and beautiful. If not for the walls, this would be the perfect plains.
"Hm… alright. So the trial begins roughly three months after the castles descend, and it takes around three months for all the trials to complete. That means, if I leave, I should have one or two months before they return, assuming I'm not in the last castle."
Faust mentally tracked the time. He had a rough idea of how long he had been here and how long the cycles lasted.
But for now, the real task is to find this so called 'fruit.' The others grouped up... They probably know the trials inside out. Likely, someone enters and uses their one chance to exit, bringing back knowledge about the contents to their partners.
And apparently, from the second trial onward, you can progress without pause. The first trial was just a qualifier… I wonder how this place actually works.
The more Faust thought about it, the more questions arose. So, he stopped and focused on the present.
He needed to find a fruit and eat it.
The question was—were these literal fruits or some kind of metaphor? The voice didn't seem like one to speak in riddles. The first trial's voice, who appeared as a woman, had also been direct.
He could only hope the fruit was a literal fruit, and that he'd find it in time. The voice hadn't mentioned what happened to those who failed, and Faust wasn't eager to find out. Curiously, there didn't seem to be any reward this time—perhaps the second trial and onward trials offered no prize besides survival?
Regardless, Faust began walking through the labyrinth. The walls were too tall to climb. He had no guiding tool or map. There didn't seem to be a "correct" path he could follow, and even if there was, he had no way to reach it quickly.
The other participants likely had the advantage—knowledge, preparation, possibly even maps—unless the labyrinth shifted itself.
More than an hour passed.
Faust kept walking until he heard something in the distance—voices, echoing faintly through the roots. They were arguing.
He began moving toward them, navigating the paths to draw closer. He still couldn't see anyone, but he could hear them more clearly now.
A shouting angry voice could be heard.
"Leave already, man! We found it first, so it's ours!"
Another, calmer voice responded:
"Well, maybe. But we're the ones who grabbed it first… so it's technically ours."
"…"
"Look, no need to get mad, alright? Just find another one and th—whoa! Are you sure you wanna take it that way? No offense, but we've got the advantage..."
"Then give it back. I don't care if I die; I've got nothing to lose anyway. But I swear to all the gods, I'll take you with me."
"Man… damn it. Look, this fruit's not even that great… I mean, besides passing the test, what's the use of it? I can give you money and then you leave—how about it?"
The first voice paused, then answered coldly:
"No. It doesn't matter. Give me."
"Well… too bad then."
Suddenly, the talking stopped. The sound of clashing metal erupted.
Faust approached the source of the noise carefully, knowing others could hear it too.
He drew his sword as he advanced.
Eventually, he turned a corner and saw them—three people still alive, five dead. They were in an area larger than the labyrinth corridors, like a forest clearing.
He took a few steps back and hid himself behind the root-covered wall, only glancing occasionally.
Two men stood side by side, weapons pointed at a man wielding an iron club.
All of them were badly hurt, blood oozing from multiple open wounds. The man using the club was breathing heavily—white bone could be seen through the sword wounds on his body.
But there was something he kept in his other arm, a ball about the size of a baby's fist. It was dark red and looked like a pomegranate, Faust assumed that was the fruit.
"So someone has already found a fruit? Why didn't he just eat it??"
Faust thought as he watched the scene unfold. He wasn't sure why the man hadn't eaten the fruit. Maybe it wasn't that easy—maybe it wasn't just about eating it.
As he observed, the men started to clash again. Eventually, the man using the club fell dead on the ground, his head decapitated.
The fruit fell beside him. One of the two survivors grabbed it.
"Alright, we got one already. Now we need more. If we could eat at least three fruits each, it would be the best for the next trial."
The other nodded. Neither had noticed Faust.
"So the number of fruits changes the outcome and actually influences the next trial? That's interesting… maybe if they eat it now, the test ends, so they have to store them and eat all at once? Could be. "
Faust couldn't remember their faces well. They were probably low or intermediate scorers from the previous trial.
"Alright, alright. Guard me… I'll heal first, then I'll guard for you."
The man with the fruit sat on the ground and grabbed a yellow stone from his pouch. He smashed it, and a yellow light started to permeate his body, slowly closing his wounds.
"Only two, and they're badly hurt. Besides, one is distracted… should I do it?"
Faust observed to see how fast the healing was. It was quite slow.
Seeing the man's healing was not very efficient, Faust made up his mind.
He grabbed a paper with a detonation rune and placed it on the edge of his sword. It was a new technique he was testing. Since detonation runes could activate when heavily damaged, he would place the paper on the sword's edge.
When the sword hit the target, it would cut through the paper and activate the rune. It was an automatic way to use them—even though manually activating them caused little strain on his mind, it still took a few breaths. But when damaged, the detonation was instantaneous.
So he rushed in. The man on guard saw Faust and alerted the other while raising his sword and slashing.
Faust slid across the grass floor and struck the man's leg with his sword. The impact caused an explosion that blew the leg off the rest of his body but also made Faust body tremble.
His healing partner eyes shot open, but before he could rise to his feet, Faust grabbed a spear and hurled it toward him.
The man quickly grabbed his sword and blocked it but lost balance—just enough of a chance.
Faust leapt into the air and prepared a descending vertical strike.
The man raised his sword to block, but when their weapons clashed, another explosion happened. The explosion didn't break the sword—but the force made him fall to the ground, his body trembling.
Faust used the opportunity to kick the sword out of the man's hands and severed his head with a final strike.
He was dead.
Faust grabbed the fruit but didn't eat it. Instead, he stored it in his pouch and walked toward the other man.
He was still alive, though bleeding violently.
Faust pointed his sword at him.
"I can let you heal. Just tell me, why do you want more fruits?"
"Fuck… you…" the man replied.
Faust raised his sword and asked again.
"If you don't answer, I'll kill you."
The man's skin was losing its color.
Faust quickly reached into the man fallen comrade's pouch and grabbed another of the yellow stones, throwing it to him.
The man instantly broke it, and his body was enshrouded in a yellow light. Little by little, his bleeding stopped and his breathing steadied.
He looked at Faust and knew he had no option—at least not for now.
"Alright. I'll tell you. But you have to let me heal first. If not, just kill me already."
"…"
Faust kept quiet, but he was thinking.
"He's not one of the strongest, but he doesn't look weak either. Downing him and killing his partner was easier since they could barely move… but if he heals, it could be difficult to deal with him. What if he somehow calls reinforcements?"
He wanted answers, but dealing with that man could become dangerous.
"Alright."
He said as he raised his sword and brought it down toward the man's head.
"Wai—"
The man lifted his arms to defend, but all this time, Faust had trained only one technique with the sword: slashing. He couldn't parry or defend well. He couldn't do complex maneuvers—but he knew how to slash.
And so he did. The sword cut through the man's arms and split his head open. Pieces of his brain flew out, mixed with blood. The cut wasn't clean.
The executioner's sword had lost much of its edge. It was still a sword, but Faust didn't know how to care for it. He tried to keep it clean, but that wasn't enough—it needed to be sharpened regularly, and it hadn't been.
But there wasn't much he could do. He looted both men and left the area through another path of the labyrinth.
He decided not to eat the fruit for now. He wanted to understand its true use first.