Solo Trials were for the truly skilled or the foolish, and Banst was neither of those things.

However, he was still an Adventurer. No other occupation held as true a reputation as Adventurers. Even knights were known to fall short of their titles, displaying an inability to adhere to their own code. Yet, when it came to fighting for the sake of the powerless and the weak, Adventurers were never known to abandon their duty. Banst’s parents, aware that their infant son awaited their return, still walked into danger for the glory and honor of the guild.

That brave man and woman had left a courageous young man in their departure from this world.

Still, Banst couldn’t stop shivering, allowing his armor to conceal his fearful movements for him. It had been a challenging trek for the Weakest Adventurer to reach the “Gremlin Capital,” fear and uncertainty weighing Banst down, struggling to move one foot after the other. The ghoul had left a path of destroyed plants and heavy footsteps for Banst to follow, and he had arrived at three dirt mounds with holes that exuded a sinister aura.

Hesitation kept Banst still. The only way was forward or back, yet he couldn’t decide. He was weak and had been signed up for this Solo Trial against his own accord. He shouldn’t have been made to come here in the first place!

The scream of a child caused Banst to tense, his thoughts evacuating as he could tell what was happening. A wicked voice as deep as the burrow itself, traveled up the tunnels to Banst, “Now, kill this human child. Silence this annoying thing forever.”

The death of a child was near. Banst stood frozen in terror. What could he do, being as weak as he was?

“Yes, my loyal steed. Kill him!”

There was no more waiting — duty called. “Armor,” Banst hissed a command, still paralyzed by fear, “Do something to get that gremlin’s attention!”

The armor followed Banst’s instruction and lifted a decapitated head of a gremlin, most likely torn from its body by the ghoul, and bowled the head down into the tunnel. If fear kept Banst from moving, he would make his soul-bound armor move for him!

“That’s enough!” Banst called down into the burrow and issued a challenge, ““Hakon the Great, come face me — Banst the Weakest Adventurer!”

What emerged from the dark holes surprised Banst. Glowing worms were tossed up, filling the air with their wriggling bodies. Each worm emitted enough light to reveal Banst's surroundings and the clearing he had entered. The radiant glow set the battlefield, ensuring no escape from the gremlins tonight, as they could see Banst clearly in the worm light.

Silence then drew before clawing through dirt resounded. Gleaming cat eyes appeared in the shadows of the tunnels as the gremlin horde climbed toward Banst with vicious intentions.

“This is it,” Banst choked, nervousness squeezing his voice, “Time to be an Adventurer!” There were too many gremlins coming at him at once. They would overwhelm him when they reached the surface. “That’s it!” Banst enthused, adrenaline coursing, mind thrumming with ideas. “Armor, don’t let a single gremlin through these dirt mounds!”

“Your wish is my command, Master,” the armor answered tonelessly and lowered Banst’s body into a fighting stance. Within Banst’s iron visor, the gremlins became clearer as they neared. Gremlin blood then sprayed as his sword cut into any bulbous, blotchy head that reared up out of the dirt. Like stalks of weeds, Banst whacked at them like a furious farmer.

“I am Banst, the Weakest Adventurer!” Banst roared.

Down in the Gremlin Capital, the sight of the gremlins trying to surface turned odd as they suddenly became clogged in the dirt pathways. The dead gremlin corpses above had slowed their movement and slowed progression.

“Come at me, monsters!” Banst’s voice echoed from above. “Is this the might of Hakon the Great? A conqueror that thing claims to be? Not with forces like these!” Adrenaline had caused Banst to say whatever was on his mind.

Sitting amidst the last remaining glow worms, with the ghoul and Mido by its side, Hakon the Great stood there with overwhelming fury. Squirming, angry veins nearly popped from beneath its bile-colored skin, and its sharp teeth were bared like a beast threatened by another predator.

Mido was stuck in a coughing fit, holding his throat that had nearly been crushed by his father transformed into a ghoul. The village boy was in a nightmare.

“I am the Weakest Adventurer!” Banst’s voice breached past the soil and crammed gremlin bodies. “If I’m the weakest and I’m beating you, Hakon, then what does that make you?”

Hakon had heard enough. It was the ruler in this forest and would not be made a fool of. This rambunctious human would soon know what true power was like.

Gremlin corpses were beginning to pile up at the three dirt mounds. Banst remained at work, his soul-bound armor tirelessly swinging away, as if he were a laborer working for coin. The fight had been turbulent at first, with gremlins nearly washing over Banst like floodwater. However, with each gremlin death, a barrier of monster flesh formed at each tunnel entrance. Only death by his blade awaited any gremlin that managed to squeeze through the piles of corpses.

“What a glorious day!” Banst cheered, his iron armor drenched in blood, his sword hacking away. The thrill of the fight and dancing so close with the possibility of death had gone to his head.

The bodies of the gremlins suddenly exploded upward along with waves of dirt as a burly figure burst through, knocking away Banst with the force of a battering ram. Banst flew across the small clearing, his expression blank, eyes closed; he had been knocked unconscious. The ghoul, now mindless, did not let up, squishing gremlins into puddles of blood without care in its charge toward Banst to finish him off.

Its undead hands dug into the dirt, missing Banst’s prone body as it tried to grab him. Banst’s armor flipped his body to avoid the monster’s clutches. Crackly growls emitted from behind the soul-bound armor. The gremlins were determined to eat human meat this night. Ground trembling, the ghoul charged, maggots falling off its decaying flesh.

The gremlins attacked Banst in tandem, only to blanch when the ghoul missed its charge and mindlessly ran into them, stepping on the stout creatures like dandelions in a field and killing them. The rest of the gremlins warily stayed away, witnessing the gruesome massacre.

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“G-ghoul…mean!” accused the smartest gremlin that could speak, pointing a tiny finger at the undead monster.

Banst’s armor utilized sword prowess equal to that of a Deer-Ranked noble Adventurer to do battle against the ghoul. Yet, no matter how swift and coordinated its footwork was or how it could maintain a strict adherence to remain defensive, using its sword as a shield, there was no stopping the ghoul. With skin like stone and the strength of an ox, the undead monster was determined to crush the armor, along with Banst inside.

A smack of metal rang as one of the ghoul’s gray forearms crashed into the armor, sending it tumbling through the dirt.

“…What?” Banst murmured, waking up from the hit, only to see the nightmarish ghoul heading his way. “D-do something!” His armor scrambled to get out of the monster’s way.

Further clashes occurred between Banst’s soul-bound armor and the ghoul, each exchange of blows rattling Banst’s bones and dazing him. The outcome could already be guessed at. The ghoul would win. There was a reason such creatures were given only to Wolf-Rank Adventurers to take on. To a Rabbit-Rank like Banst who relied on the Deer-Ranked skills of his soul-bound armor, the ghoul was unstoppable.

Dark light cast an ominous radiance upon the clearing as Hakon emerged from one of the tunnels, dragging Mido with him. The burrow was shrouded in darkness without the glow of the worms, and Hakon was determined not to lose its meal, fearing the possibility that the boy could escape into the night. A brilliant aura of dark magic enveloped the gremlin ruler.

Its power was increasing. Soon, the children of Halbit would be used to feed its horde, and their parents would be turned into ghoul servants.

Without warning, it assumed a heroic pose, chin held high, and its blue cape swayed in the light breeze.

The smartest gremlin among what was left of the horde approached. Their numbers had significantly shrunk after Banst and the ghoul killed so many of them. It cried out to their leader, “Ghoul, mean!”

Hakon clenched its teeth, seeing its kin crushed into the ground around the clearing, resembling mulch. This ghoul would die, Hakon would make sure of it. “I’ll teach that undead thing a lesson later,” Hakon promised, alleviating the worries of its underlings.

Banst crashed into one of the three tunnels, which collapsed on top of him. A gurgling roar reverberated through the air as the ghoul charged toward the dirt pile Banst laid under. Its cold hands ferociously dug through the soil, tearing apart Banst's flimsy iron armor. Fragments of the armor scattered behind as the ghoul attempted to reach the fleshy young man within.

Banst’s iron sword stabbed upward toward one of the ghoul’s eye, only to be swatted away down into another of the three tunnels, disarming the iron gauntlet that held it.

“No…!” Mido whispered in horror. His only chance of living was being torn apart in front of him. His father was no longer in his right mind, and this young man in armor who had come to fight Hakon was going to die. All hope had now been extinguished.

In witnessing the paling face of Mido, Hakon cackled and began dragging the boy back down into the dark depths of the burrow. "Stupid human!" the gremlin leader laughed, observing the iron armor being shredded as the ghoul continued its assault, then pointed at Mido. “And stupid human child! Stupid, stupid, stupid! All humans — stupid!” It nearly stumbled in the darkness without the glow worms, yet its merriment was hardly marred.

“Now,” Hakon determined with a nod, getting back to the spot where the last glowing worms in the burrow remained, “time to eat!” It grabbed Mido by the head and tried to bite off a chunk from his face. A kick from the child reached the gremlin ruler’s head, causing it to snarl. It hated when the children fought back.

Without a second thought, Hakon began to relentlessly kick the child. “Stop being so annoying, human child!”

Mido coughed out bile as he was struck in the stomach. “Papa!” Mido cried out in pain. “Papa, save me!”

Hakon’s eyes glowed brightly as its voice became demonic, “Your ‘papa’ is dead, foolish human child. You are food for me. Now, stop wiggling!” With the back of its hand, it smacked Mido to the floor and dazed the boy. As the child struggled to reorient himself, Hakon began to sink its teeth into Mido’s back, drawing blood.

It needed to save some for its gremlin kin, but it would make sure to rip off the juiciest parts of Mido for itself.

The gremlin ruler’s teeth could not bite in further before a sword suddenly grew from its chest. The weapon had gone clean through, with no blood showing on the sword point. Standing behind the gremlin was Banst without his armor, thrusting his iron sword into the creature.

“H-human? How?!” Hakon spat, black eyes wide, black blood beginning to spill from its mouth. Banst had been torn to pieces, Hakon was sure of it!

Yet, the truth unfolded differently. Banst had strategically sacrificed his armor for this critical moment. When he was hurled into the tunnel, realization struck that he would face death unless he altered his tactics. Swiftly, before the ghoul could excavate the dirt burying Banst after the tunnel entrance collapsed, Banst commanded his armor to slip off his body.

The absence of the glowing worms thrown to the surface had left the burrow and tunnels dark enough for Banst to hide away and reclaim his lost sword. At his command, his armor fought to the bitter end to sell the idea that Banst was being ripped apart. The ghoul’s undead mind was too damaged to even discern that it was not tearing into flesh and blood.

Darkness enveloped Hakon and its victim within the burrow, accompanied only by a measly handful of glow worms nearby. This provided ample cover for Banst to stealthily approach the gremlin ruler, catching it off guard and thrusting his sword into its back. It had no chance to use its dark magic to fight back.

The creature's blood stained its once-blue cape, now transformed into a deep shade of black.

“Hakon,” Banst said solemnly, “It’s over. For all that you’ve done to the village of Halbit, I claim your life!”

The blade was withdrawn to allow Hakon to stumble to the ground, hands on its wound, looking out into the darkness, fearing death was inevitable now. The gremlin ruler needed to find the hooded figure. Their help was needed now more than ever!

Black flames grew from its hands as it summoned its loyal steed. In response, dirt and rocks erupted from one of the tunnels. Walking on all fours, the ghoul’s corpse visage appeared, answering its master's call.

“Steed, take me to—” Hakon attempted to say, but the creature was silenced as Banst plunged his sword through its chest once more. With eyes rolling back and head tilted upward, black flames erupted from the monster’s mouth, shooting skyward. The gremlin ruler's dark magic dispersed in death, flowing out from its mouth like departing dark souls.

When the malevolent force was evacuated from the gremlin, Hakon's eyes reverted to their original cat-like form. The gremlin ruler's body shriveled back to its natural size, transforming into the creature that had once dreamed of bravery, much like the boy who used to play in this forest.

In Hakon’s final moment, the gremlin gripped its stained blue cape and offered it to Mido, who stood watching with shock. “Play with me…” Hakon coughed out. Hakon the Great then finally died. With its death and the disappearance of its dark magic, the ghoul suddenly collapsed like a dropped pile of sticks.

“Papa!” Mido sputtered and rushed to the ghoul’s side. Mido’s father, Dakrec, was a serious man but was kind when it mattered. The village would be a worse place without his presence.

“Midoth…”

Mido froze when he heard his father’s voice say his birth name. In the ghoul’s dead expression, the man it had once been came forth.

“Take care of your mother, Midoth,” Dakrec ordered his son, who began to sob in his gray, decaying arms.

Banst had to look away. Monsters wrought fear in him. Quests always held danger. Team members were sparse and often unruly, given his moniker as the guild’s weakest member. But with what entailed being an Adventurer for Banst, it all paled in comparison to these moments. These were the worst for Banst to witness — seeing good people suffer the loss of those they held dear.

Not always did Adventurers make it in time to save the day. Occasionally, they were there merely to bring an end to trouble, leaving those behind with whatever pieces could be salvaged, if anything remained at all.

“H-human…kill Hakon!” The smart gremlin had been intelligent enough to check on things in the burrow after the ghoul’s sudden departure from the surface, unlike the other gremlins that were too afraid to be near the hostile undead monster.

The smart gremlin started to shout, “Gremlins…come! Hakon…dead!”

Banst could see the numerous cat-like eyes in the dark as stout, leathery-skinned bodies began to crawl back into the tunnel. Yet, he was without his soul-bound armor. He only had himself to rely on — the Weakest Adventurer.