The journey of each group in a different direction began at this point in the trial. Ikami's group was quite a mess, to say the least, but honestly, she was grateful for her luck. The last thing she wanted was to be stuck with the dickhead or have to deal with the two idiots, naturally Duke and Pyotr. The group she had been given was at least sensible; the Tumo guy was alright. The healer was mostly quiet and got the job done. She saw him talking to the children in the giant village more than once, playing with them and helping out others while he could. He was a nice guy, which somehow pissed her off and made her feel at ease at the same time. Fuck if she knew how that worked now.

Lastly, for the last guy, she had not spoken to him once. Honestly, she hadn't even seen him speak yet. She could consider him just mute, but in the current magical world, she doubted that would be too hard to fix. Whatever it was, he didn't try to act nice to everyone and was not an idiot. He kept to himself and got whatever was told to him done. She honestly preferred people like Hyeon.

Tumo was the first one to break the silence after almost 5 hours of walking, since no one bothered to even try to communicate with each other. "Since we would be working together, wouldn't it be better to introduce ourselves to each other and our skill sets?"

Ikami stopped and looked back at Tumo for a second, who looked genuinely worried he might have offended her somehow, but she nodded. "Alright everyone, well, take a short break here then. We can talk and have lunch before continuing," she told the other two, who just agreed without saying much. They decided to sit down under a giant tree, which was surprisingly normal-sized for a giant forest being not too far. As they all sat down, everyone waited for the other to say something.

Again, poor Tumo was the one to break the silence first as he spoke. "My name is Tumo Kamisato, and my rank is inferior (III). My class is swordsman as of now; it's one of the only classes without a class skill, I think. And I have two skills and a trait. I think my trait was the reason I was picked, honestly, because my skills are pretty underwhelming. I can create and coat my blades in mana, making them sharper and stronger, and I can mentally control up to three swords," he said as the two swords on his waist and one in his hand started flying around him before going back in their sheaths. "My trait is, well, honestly, I'd like to keep it private. I hope you guys understand."

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

"It's fine," Ikami said in a rather uncaring tone. His skills were rather mediocre indeed, so she had no idea how convincing his trait would be, nor would she care as long as he could make himself useful. "Elio, you're next," she said, shifting her gaze to him and taking control of the situation before they knew it.

"Ah, alright," the healer said in an intimidated tone. "My name is Elio. I used to be a doctor before this whole mess started. My current rank is inferior II, and my class is Well-a-Shaman. I have three skills, no traits; my main skill is, of course, healing; my class skill allows me to identify injuries, poisons, or any such stuff in people. It's like an X-ray in my eyes." Ikami raised a brow upon hearing that, but the healer soon cleared it up. "I can only see injuries, toxins, and such. Not a literal x-ray... And lastly, my third skill allows me to buff my allies; it was an extra skill I earned."

Ikami nodded after having her doubts cleared, as the last guy who was left was the quiet guy. She had nothing against him, but he always wore a kind of dejected or tired look on his face. The eye bags under his eyes did not help that at all. "Your turn," he said as he looked up at her, his eyes looking exhausted.

"Ah right," his voice was rather monotonous as he sighed again before looking up. "My name is Hyeon. My rank is, uh," he stopped for a moment before he opened his skill tree to check. "Inferior III, and my class is... I am a hex mage. I can curse opponents and give them nightmares and such," he said in a very unenthusiastic tone while looking at his hands. "Ah, I have a trait; it's not worth it to call it a trait, though. It's the biggest curse I have ever seen," he said with a sigh, upon which no questions were asked. The poor guy looked depressed enough.

Now all eyes were on Ikami, as they were all expecting her to tell them about herself. But she just looked confused for a second before speaking. "I'm not going to. As a leader, it's necessary for me to have information about you guys; I see no reason why I should tell you." This left both Tumo and Elio flabbergasted, to say the least.

"Uh guys..." suddenly, as they heard the monotonous voice, they looked to where Hyeon had been sitting, only to find him missing. "Up here," he said as they all looked up. The vines hanging from the tree had been holding the leg of Hyeon, who was hanging upside down right now. "You guys should run; it's too late for me," he simply said in the same tone as he accepted the end and closed his eyes welcoming the warm embrace of death.