"You are the only one who failed, Ryo..."

Aurum said as he closed his eyes... 

"You chose Selvyria as your weapon, it is a wise yet stupid decision. Her type is one of the meanest of all Cyan's creations she will break your heart as you relieve your most hated memory."

If I were to continue and finish that trial to the end of the day... My heart would've been seriously broken and I'll be a mindless puppet controlled by the Scythe.

"It seems you knew what would have happened to you if you kept going on the trial..."

"No... I didn't I just didn't have it in me to continue..."

"I see... Selvyria despise cowards above all... So she left you!"

"Hey don't say that like I've been dumped by a girl..."

"Got dumped by a weapon!"

Everyone started laughing, I wonder how their trial was... Mine was psychological trauma, so maybe physical?

I still feel scared as I remember that day... and this weapon just had to pick it... If it was my quarrel with sis then I would've seriously and easily finished the trial and have gotten a weapon.

"Still it seems Selvyria wants to see your growth... Though you will not be able to use her at her perfect state. She's still sharp as a sword when it comes to cutting things..."

Aurum says so and gives me the clothed scythe... She said she won't let a cowardly person like me touch her body... Isn't she a bit tsundere for a weapon? If she wants to stick with me she could've just said so... Now that I think about it she used my avatar in the trial... I wonder why? Did she have no physical form?

"Thank you Aurum..."

"Keep her safe..."

"I will..."

Huh? I can't insert it to the inventory?

"Hey! I can't insert it in the inventory!? You guys can right?"

"Yeah!"

"Eh? Defective weapon eh?"

"No way... Aurum?"

"I don't know?"

He moves his head left to right while raising both his hands like a christian who's singing in the church...

"This is too big to carry..."

"I can hold it if you want?"

Ford suggests so, while his hand came closing in to the clothed scythe. Sparks of violet lightning came from the scythe as Ford's hand came near it... Electrocuting him.

"What's with that weapon! It actually damaged my HP!"

"The weapon picks it's wielder so... You can't take hold of that!"

"But he failed the trial? What's with that?"

"I seriously don't know Cyan only left me his weapons talk to him if you want!"

Aurum replies as such... It seems he's irritated for having to many things hidden from him by the Cyan guy... If there was a way then it would been much easier.

"Before I forgot... This 100 Ardelan Gold Coins and the Mantle."

Ah! A customizable mantle! Sweet! I open the customization settings and changed it's color to black and changed it's name to [Mantle of Darkness], the others wore colorful ones, specially ford he wore a pink one and named it [Pink Power] with a heart in it. Are you gay or what? He actually did it as a joke but after knowing that he can't change it's color any further he despaired so hard! He was gonna slash himself until his HP hit 0. But was stopped by Grazel as he held both of Ford's arms...

Aurum then acknowledges our actions and thus the quest ended and we were teleported back to the surface before entering the room in the basement.

[Cruel Heart's Labyrinth Fourth Floor Map Data added to the Database]

×××

"Waah! We looked like that when we were walking to look for the dungeon too, right?"

Ford, Grazel and I, leisurely sat at the foot of the giant tree where the quest originally started. The girls went to town to sightsee.

"Hey! You guys didn't even need to look like that..."

"Yeah! We were pretty lucky to have Shiva in our party! We went straight down to the dungeon after all!"

"I on the other hand... Ha... I kind of feel tired when I think about it... Mentally since I don't really exert any physical strength in this game."

"The mission can't be finished by being alone after all... I mean 7 people were required to open the hidden chamber on the 2nd floor right?"

"Well, yeah..."

"Here some food... Our stamina and satisfaction meter is only 7%"

"Oh! I didn't see that... I was paying too much attention on the enemy during the fight... Did the girls eat yet?"

"They'll be fine, besides their roaming around the town and well there is too many tea shops in there right? I mean you scouted the whole town, you should've seen some tea shops in there."

"Let's see... I'll locate them first then I'll talk to them through telepathy."

I opened the Map and saw that they are still walking northeast from our location. I activated Telepathy and talked to Aira and instructed them that there is a tea shop near their location, it has a good atmosphere to it and it's an open terrace shop. Though she felt uneasy about me following their move she accepted my suggestion and headed there.

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"They didn't know that their stamina and satisfaction meter was on the red. It was a good thing to talk to Aira."

"Hey, why are you always talking to the crazy battle crazed girl? When there is the timid beauty (Leona), cute Loli (Tara), and a cool beauty (Shiva)?"

"I don't know! She's just much easier to talk to I guess. She reminds me a bit of my sister so."

"Ah! So you have a sister complex!"

Grazel buts in our conversation as he hears my reply to Ford's questions. What do you mean sister complex? I'm not into that!

"I kind of understand, Ryo... I too have taken a liking to my older sister!"

"You know! I'm not like you, Grazel, I don't see my sister as another woman."

"I see..."

He seemed disappointed. Let's have him talk about his sister for now...

"Grazel, let's see... How about we talk about your sister?"

"Ah! T, then!"

He seemed delighted, he started talking while glorifying his sister in his stories. Ford and I laughed at his hilarious stories about his actions last month. After a while the girl troupe came back with sweets in their hand.

"You seemed to be having fun?"

"You know, Grazel was just talking ab-- mfff!"

Grazel puts his hand on Ford who was about to blabber what we were just talking about. Seriously, this guy... Even if he told us boys his secret so easily doesn't mean that you can just say it to girls nonchalantly.

"Huh?"

"N, no! It's nothing he's just being stupid like always..."

At first I thought Grazel was a hard one to deal with but he's actually a pretty easy guy to talk to. He's pretty distant from us earlier maybe it was because of the girls... Guess he lightened up a bit after our ventures.

"Here! We bought you guys some!"

"Heh? Thanks!"

"Can we sit here?"

"Sure! We're a party so we basically finished the mission already so let's rest here for a bit..."

It's already afternoon here, it must be dawn back in the real world. It's the third day after all. I wonder how many players have already finished the quest? It won't be funny if we're the only ones who finished the quest.

"I wonder how many finished?"

"Yeah... I wonder too..."

"Tara! Hey come here!"

Ford calls out to Tara as she distanced herself a bit from our location. Shiva and Leona cuddled together near us though... This girls are like the most close in the party right?

Tara looks at us with a blank expression then looked back at the orange sun. Ford gives up while saying "Why?" Why you say? It's because of your nonchalant and aggressive attitude that girls try to avoid you.

Tara looked lonely being alone in that place, it kind of remind me of my highschool years. I stood up and walked to her.

"Can I sit?"

She raised her head to look at me then moved back to watch the sunset again. She nodded lightly.

"Then I'll sit here."

"Why did you come here?"

"Well, you're alone and... I can't seem to just leave you alone... Why are you so silent all of a sudden it's kind of out of character since you're pretty aggressive back at the dungeon."

"It was back then and this is now... I'm mostly like this IRL so you can't call it "Out of Characterly" of me... I just wanted to be a little active here that's all..."

"Eh? I see..."

"The sun... It's like what I always see back IRL... Only this time... I'm no longer hold up in a single place... I can run, fight and even use magic... Such a fantasy it is..."

"What do you mean?"

"I'm a patient... Well, I already had a deadline for my life... So I used all my luck just to participate in this beta test... Even though I should be happy that I advanced as a beta tester, I still feel sad. Thinking my life might end this next few months... I hated that yet, I can't seem to take my mind of it."

"..."

"I wish everything would just change..."

Different people with different problems gathered in this virtual world. My experiences cannot equate to what she have been feeling up to now. She wasn't like me, she didn't suffer to be bullied and extorted. She was sheltered, protected against the cruelty of the world yet she still wasn't safe from her fate. Her death that was drawing near... Wishing for everything to change it was the last thing she said...

Our conversation ended with her reply... I could only look at the scenery she was looking at with a hint of sadness visible in my expression. The world was unfair that much I know... But this... This is just too much.