Faul had no idea what to do. The Flamebeast was right in front of him, reduced to shreds. What happened to him? All he could remember was a bright cross.

As he was examining the Flamebeast, he could hear footsteps rushing towards him. He assumed it was probably the others, who came to check up on him.

In front of the group was the carriage driver, followed closely by Varus and Iona and the others.

"Are you alright?!" [Carriage Driver]

When they finally arrived in front of the Flamebeast, they were all shocked. The mighty beast that was terrorizing them earlier had now been cut into pieces, not moving an inch. It was obviously dead. The only person they saw here was Faul. Could it be...?

"By any chance.. were you the one who did this?" [Carriage Driver]

Faul had no idea how to respond. However, since he did not want to be bothered about it, he realized that it was in his best benifit to not reveal what happened.

"Um.. no, it wasn't me. Someone flashed by and killed it in a instant..." [Faul]

Everyone there was perplexed. Who was that person who was able to kill this Flamebeast? Even an S-rank would have to take at least a couple minutes fighting it, even with their absurd strength.

The carriage driver thought about it. If someone really was here and killed the beast that quickly, but still hadn't collected the remains, that means they had probably left. It was no use trying to bother an S-rank about it.

"Alright. At least it's good that you're safe. Men! Take the remains of the Flamebeast! We taking this back to Remedi with us to report it to the higher ups!" [Carriage Driver]

"Yes, sir!" [Other carriage drivers]

As the rest were hard at work trying to repair the broken carriages and healing some wounds of the others, Faul was busy thinking. The thing that came out of him was unusually. He had never seen anything like it before. Was this perhaps magic?

He decided to test it out. Walking into a nearby forest, he found an open area, with an old tree in the middle. It looked worn out. Someone had been here already.

Faul decided to pay it no mind. He held out his hands again, and tried to focus all his energy into it.

Nothing happened.

Stratching his head, Faul was very confused. What happened last time that he managed to pull off something so powerful? Were there certain conditions to it?

He decided to try another time.

Slowly holding up his hands, he pointed them towards the tree. However, he was interrupted by a small rustling in the nearby bushes. Someone was approaching.

Varus and Iona popped out from behind him.

"Oh, it's you two." [Faul]

The two of them were tired. Of course, it had been a dangerous and long day. 

"We were worried about you, man! What kind of stupid plan was that?" [Varus]

"Ha ha, sorry about that!" [Faul]

He really had no excuse. It was a futile attempt to escape, but it managed to work out in the end, so he wasn't too bothered by it.

"Do you realize how worried we were about you?!" [Iona]

She was angry. That was to be given. A close friend of hers was about to die, and that was something they all feared.

"Yes, but it's all good now. Anyways, how's the repairs going? Think we'll make it in time for the test?" [Faul]

During the time they had left the village, they were expected to get there in about a day and a half, with another day to spare within Remedi, to explore the area and meet with the locals. However, they had lost a lot of time, due to the incident with the Winged Flamebeast. No one knew how long it would take to finish repairing the carriages.

They were hoping to make it there barely on time at best.

"It's going at a steady pace. We're expected to finish everything by night and leaving then." [Varus]

"That's good. At least we'll still be able to leave, huh?" [Faul]

Faul looked up in the sky. Something was nagging him, but he still had no idea what it was. There was no point worrying about it now. After everything that happened, he was tired. He could finally take a break now.

"Well, I'm going to sleep now. Goodnight." [Faul]

Iona were stanring at him in disbelief. This guy was about to die just a few minutes ago! Was sleep really that appealing?

"Goodnight? Isn't it still noon?" [Varus]

"Well... whatever. I'm still going to sleep. Wake me up when we're supposed to go!" [Faul]

This guy was hopeless. 

"Alright, we'll be out there helping the others if you need us." [Iona]

As they left, Faul walked around the area, looking for a suitable place to sleep. After five minutes or so, he found a large amount of trees next to each other, creating a perfect bed.

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He climbed to the top of the tree, and began setting up. This was perfect! Faul decided to bring back his pillow with him. While he walked back, he marked some trees with rocks that he left behind so he wouldn't get lost when he came back.

Walking back to the carriages, he met up with the others who were hard at work helping out with the carriages.

Faul felt bad about it, since he was the only one doing nothing. He helped out for half an hour, moving around different pieces of the carriage and that was the extent. At least he had done something. That counted, right? He finally got to his carriage and took the pillow.

It took a while to get back to the trees where he was going to sleep, but eventually he made it. After a bit of fumbling and messing around with the branches, Faul finally got comfortable and slept soundly.

-10 Hours Later-

 A shove off the trees he was sleeping on woke him up. He could probably guess who it was.Two figures standing above him confrimed it.

"Urgh... Is it time already?" [Faul]

"Yup.. Get up and eat something, we're about to leave soon. If we don't, we'll definitely be late for the test." [Varus]

"I'm not that hungry... I can probably just munch on an apple during the ride or something, that'll be enough." [Faul]

"Suit yourself. Come on, let's go!" [Iona]

Faul drowzily got up and staggered a bit before moving. He stood up a bit too quickly, and now his vision was hazy. He quickly got over it and began following the two towards the caravans.

There, sat everyone else, preparing for a long trip through the night. If everything went well this time, they would be able to make it to Remedi by noon tomorrow, leaving a couple hours to spare before the test. As Faul looked around, he could clearly see the excitement in everyone's eyes. They were all psyched up for the upcoming trial, looming before them.

As a while, everything was ready. All the villagers got into their respectives carriages and left for Remedi.

While everyone was probably sleeping, Faul was wide awake. Maybe it wasn't such a good idea to sleep during the day? However, it didn't matter much to him. He could sleep at any time, and anywhere, and he was proud of that fact.

Faul looked out the window and admired the scenery. It passed by in the blink of an eye as the carriage continued on. For some reason, the ride was very stable, and not shaking as much as he thought it might have.

He began to think, back to the incident with the Flamed Wingbeast. How was he able to summon forth that much power? For now, it remained a mystery, but he thought that tomorrow might bring him some answers, during the Dungeon Test.

Looking at his hands, he realized that something might be special about him. Just a maybe. But those were questions to be answered another day, in the future. There was no point worrying about it now. For now, he just wanted to sleep the night away!

-The Next Day-

Sun rays hit the face of Faul, and he calmly woke up. The carriage was still moving, but he had no idea for far they went in that period of time.

He looked out the window and saw several others doing the same. They greeted each other good morning before looking at what was ahead of them.

A couple hundred meters in front of them was the famed Remedi. They finally arrived!

As they approached, they could hear the shouts of the citizens, chatting about. It was a huge city, in the shape of a circle. When they got near the gates, they were stopped by the guards.

"On what business brings you here today?" [Guard]

"Are you seriously asking that? We have twelve kids here to take the Dungeon Test. That's pretty much the main event every year!" [Carriage Driver]

The guard quickly scanned through all the carriages. He nodded his head.

"All right. Go ahead." [Guard]

The group headed through the southern gates, and was navigating through the large crowds of people walking around. It seems that most of the other applicants of the test were already here, enjoying their last few moments around town before it started. It was something that they also had planned, however weren't able to, due to the attack of the Flamebeast.

They hurried towards the main area where they took the test, east of the dungeon. Over there was plenty of other carriages and an enormous amount of people talking loudly. Some were nervous, while others were excited.

The carriages made its way over to the parking area, and dropped off all twelve kids.

"Behave yourselves. You guys got lucky meeting that Flamebeast, so maybe you'll get lucky again and pass this test! Ha ha! Well, good luck to you kids. We've got another job coming up soon." [Carriage Driver]

All the carriage drivers hopped on their rides and left. Faul and his friends looked through the crowd. There were a lot of big shots this time around. Several high rankers within the dungeon came out to watch, and all kinds of applicants. Royals, Villagers, and even some beastmen!

"Silence!"

An unknown voice swam through the ears of everyone in the crowd. The area immediately became quiet. They all looked up to see where the voice came from.

"Over here!"

Standing there was a tall woman. She was beautiful, with flowing blonde hair and green eyes. Behind her were several bodyguards. It was slightly excessive, however there was always the possibility of danger at any time.

"I am Larci Deus Van! However, you shall all adress me as Larci for today!" [Larci]

"Now, as am I'm sure, you are all curious as to what this test is about! And right now, I will explain it to you guys. I won't say it twice, so pay attention!" [Larci]

The crowd was murmuring about as a couple of her assistants brought out a huge board, with drawings on them.

"This test is composed of three different parts! An aptitude test, an application test, and a dungeon clearing test! Each test will eliminate roughly a quarter of the applicants consecutively, so stay on your toes. The aptitude test will be a scan of your potential to use magic. If you have even the slightest bit, you qualify for the next test! If you don't, well, you're going back home!" [Larci]

Plenty of the applicants groaned at this. Whether they're magical powers had manifested yet were entirely unknown to them at this point, therefore they could only hope in their wildest dreams that they made it.

Faul was carefully paying attention, for once in his life. He had used magic before, right? So he should be able to qualify at the very least.

She continued on with her explanation.

"That test will be done in private, for safety reasons. We wouldn't want someone malicious to know your abilities and use it against you, haha! Moving on is the application test. Here, everyone will be pitted against a double horned orc, a common enemy in the earlier parts of the second floor. Although that sounds weak, an ordinary human without magic would be destroyed to bits by a single touch! So make sure you're giving it your all!" [Larci]

This test was absurd! Fighting a double horned orc? That was simply unheard of in the previous test. It seems that too many people had made it through last time, so they were trying to close the distance between those who were truly worthy and others who made it purely by chance.

At this point, a lot of people in the crowd were chatting about the danger that was before them. Several applicants considered dropping out. 

"Silence! How many of you fools don't understand that?" [Larci]

Once again, the talking stopped immediately. They could feel the frustration in her voice.

"Finally, I can talk peacefully again. The last test consists of actual dungeon exploration! It will be a race with a one hour time limit. Those who can get to the end of the first floor within that time will be considered a new addition to the dungeon explorers! If you were able to defeat a double horned orc, this should be easy for you, but we still have to test you guys on your navigation skills. That is all! If you have any questions, please ask right now!" [Larci]

No one had the need to raise their hands. They were all paying close attention to her words, and were getting ready for the first test already.

"No one? All right, then... Let the tests begin!"